NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope is an orbiting observatory that searches for Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars. When two of the reaction wheels used to stabilize the telescopefailed, the mission almost came to an end. Fortunately, a plan emerged to use radiationpressure from sunlight shining on Kepler’s solar panels to help point the telescope. If theaverage intensity of sunlight at Kepler’s orbit is 1350 W>m2, what is the average force itexerts on the solar panels? Assume the panels have an area of 10.2 m2, and that they absorball the light that falls on them

University Physics Volume 2
18th Edition
ISBN:9781938168161
Author:OpenStax
Publisher:OpenStax
Chapter16: Electromagnetic Waves
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 71P: Suppose a spherical particle of mass m and radius R in space absorbs light of intensity I for time...
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NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope is an orbiting observatory that searches for Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars. When two of the reaction wheels used to stabilize the telescope
failed, the mission almost came to an end. Fortunately, a plan emerged to use radiation
pressure from sunlight shining on Kepler’s solar panels to help point the telescope. If the
average intensity of sunlight at Kepler’s orbit is 1350 W>m2
, what is the average force it
exerts on the solar panels? Assume the panels have an area of 10.2 m2
, and that they absorb
all the light that falls on them

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