Saturn's satellite, Titan, orbits the planet in about 16 days. Titan orbits Saturn at an average 1.216*10^9 m from the center of the planet. Use this info to find the mass of Saturn.
need the "physics/math" way of doing it and steps.thxs.
2007-02-07 09:17:12 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
What you are looking for is Newton's derivation of Kepler's third law:
P^2 = (a^3)*4*((pi)^2)/((M1+M2)*G)
P is the period of the orbit
a is the semimajor axis of the orbit
M1 and M2 are the two masses.
G is the universal gravity constant
In the problem given, you are given the semimajor axis and the period and one of the masses. You just have to do some algebra and solve for the missing mass.
NOTE: you may need to do some unit conversions! Periods are normally in years and the semimajor axis is usually in AU.
2007-02-09 00:16:20 · answer #1 · answered by sparc77 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think we need the mass of saturn to figure this out.
2007-02-07 17:20:29 · answer #2 · answered by E 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋