An asteroid is discovered in a nearly circular orbit around the Sun, with an orbital radius that is 3.83 times Earth's. What is the asteroid's orbital period T, its "year," in terms of Earth years

Question

Physics

Jordan Williams

24 May, 14:05

An asteroid is discovered in a nearly circular orbit around the Sun, with an orbital radius that is 3.83 times Earth's. What is the asteroid's orbital period T, its "year," in terms of Earth years

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Francis Green · Answer 1

About 7.5 years

Explanation:

The orbital period is proportional to the semimajor axis raised to the power of 3/2.

The orbital period is also inversely proportional to the square root of the sum of the masses of the sun and the asteroid; however, the sun's mass is a constant and the asteroid's mass is negligible in comparison with the sun's mass.