In: Physics
The motion of Halley’s comet and its motion. Halley’s comet travels in an elliptical orbit of eccentricity ϵ = 0.97 around the Sun. At perihelion (closest approach), Halley’s comet is observed to be approximately 0.59 AU from the Sun. At aphelion the distance is about 35.08 AU, the semi-major axis of the elliptical orbit is 17.83 AU, and the orbital period is about 75.3 Earth years.
1) Since Earth has an essentially circular orbit that is 1 AU from the Sun. Use any approach that you like to determine the Earth’s orbital speed is v_E = sqrt(GM_S/R_E) and then determine a numerical value in kilometers/second.
2) Use the perihelion, aphelion, semi-major axis, and period above for Halley’s comet to determine the value of the characteristic length, r_c, that describes the elliptical orbital path, r(φ), for Halley’s comet.
3) Use the definition of r_c to estimate the speed of Halley’s comet at perihelion. Write the result in symbolic first, which should look like the result in part 1, then write it as the result from part (a) and appropriate ratios to estimate the numerical value of Halley’s comet’s speed at perihelion.