Question

Explain how Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation can be used to explain how the planets orbit the Sun (or satellites orbit the Earth) and use the law to derive Kepler’s third law for planets orbiting their sun in a circular orbit.

For the 6 planets closest to the sun find, from the internet or elsewhere, the mean distance from the sun (in astronomical units) and their orbital period (in years). Use this information to plot, using a software package, an appropriate straight-line graph to demonstrate Kepler’s Third Law and find the equation of the line of best fit. Explaining your working clearly use your line of best fit to estimate the mass of the Sun. Compare your estimate with the actual mass of the Sun of 2.0 × 1030 kg (2 sig figs). Notes: • You can use Excel using the Scatter Plot chart to draw the graph and automatically plot the line of best fit (called trend line).

Explain what is meant by a geosynchronous orbit and any conditions on a satellite to make it geostationary. Give a brief summary of the uses of a geostationary satellite?*

Answer 1

do comment for any difficulty.