Exam 4: Gravity and Orbits

Saturn has 95 times the mass of Earth,and its atmosphere extends outward 9.5 times the Earth's radius.How does the acceleration due to gravity at the edge of Saturn's atmosphere compare to that on the Earth?

The force of gravity between Saturn and the Sun is _________ the force of gravity between the Earth and the Sun.For reference,Saturn is approximately 100 times more massive than Earth,and the semimajor axis of Saturn's orbit is 10 AU.

Which of the following properties of an astronaut changes when he or she is standing on the Moon,relative to when the astronaut is standing on Earth?

If you have two moons that have the same radius,but Moon A is denser and has 2 times the mass of Moon B,how do their escape velocities compare?

Mars has about one tenth the mass of Earth and half the Earth's radius.How does the acceleration of gravity on Mars compare to that on Earth?

Ocean tides on Earth are caused primarily by the gravitational pull of the Sun.

Because of the Moon's tidal effect on the oceans,the Moon's orbital distance is shrinking and eventually the Moon will collide with the Earth.

The escape velocity on the Moon is less than that on Earth.

The Hubble Space Telescope orbits at an altitude of 600 km above the Earth's surface.Assuming it is in a stable circular orbit,what is its velocity? For reference,the Earth's radius is 6,400 km and Earth's mass is 6 × 10²⁴ kg.

If you weighed 150 lbs on Earth,what would you weigh on Mars? For reference,Mars has a mass that is 0.1 times the Earth's mass and Mars has a radius that is 0.5 times the Earth's radius.

If you weighed 100 lbs on Earth,what would you weigh at the upper atmosphere of Jupiter? For reference,Jupiter has a mass that is about 300 times the Earth's mass and a radius that is 10 times the Earth's radius.

The only acceleration you experience on a merry-go-round is when it starts or stops.

In the absence of air friction,a 0.001-kg piece of paper and a 0.1-kg notebook are dropped from the same height and allowed to fall to the ground.How do their accelerations compare?

More massive objects fall faster in the Earth's gravitational field than less massive objects.

What two pieces of information would you need to obtain about one of the moons of the planet Jupiter in order to measure the mass of Jupiter? What formulae would you use to determine the mass?

How does the force of gravity between the Sun and Jupiter compare to the gravitational force between the Sun and the Earth? Note that the semimajor axis of Jupiter's orbit is 5.2 AU,and Jupiter's mass is 320 times the mass of the Earth.

If you discovered a planet orbiting another star,and the planet had an orbital period of 2 years and a semimajor axis of 1 AU,what would be the mass of its parent star? You can assume the planet's mass is much less than the star's mass.

Moons that wander inside of a planet's Roche limit can be torn apart due to tidal forces.

What is the escape velocity from Mars if its mass is 6 × 10²³ kg and its radius is 3,400 km?

Mercury orbits the Sun with an average distance of 0.4 AU,and its mass is 0.06 times that of the Earth.The gravitational force that the Sun exerts on Mercury is _______________ times the force of gravity that the Sun exerts on the Earth.