9.11.3: Figuring for Yourself
Figuring for Yourself
In the future, astronomers discover a solid moon around a planet orbiting one of the nearest stars. This moon has a diameter of 1948 km and a mass of kg. What is its density?
33.
The Moon was once closer to Earth than it is now. When it was at half its present distance, how long was its period of revolution? (See Orbits and Gravity for the formula to use.)
34.
Astronomers believe that the deposit of lava in the giant mare basins did not happen in one flow but in many different eruptions spanning some time. Indeed, in any one mare, we find a variety of rock ages, typically spanning about 100 million years. The individual lava flows as seen in Hadley Rille by the Apollo 15 astronauts were about 4 m thick. Estimate the average time interval between the beginnings of successive lava flows if the total depth of the lava in the mare is 2 km.
35.
The Moon requires about 1 month (0.08 year) to orbit Earth. Its distance from us is about 400,000 km (0.0027 AU). Use Kepler’s third law, as modified by Newton, to calculate the mass of Earth relative to the Sun.