21st Century Astronomy
6th Edition
ISBN: 9780393428063
Author: Kay
Publisher: NORTON
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Chapter 12, Problem 28QP
To determine
The two types of the comet tails and the reason for the two tails pointing in different directions.
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Describe the relationship between meteor showers and comets.
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1. Suppose you have an Oort cloud comet on an orbit with pericenter distance 10,000 AU, and apocenter distance 20,000 AU.
a. What are the semi-major axis and eccentricity of the orbit?
b. What are the specific energy (energy per unit mass), and specific angular momentum (angular momentum per unit mass) of the comet?
c. How fast is the comet moving at apocenter (relative to the Sun)?
Why is the composition of a comet typically dominated by volatile materials (frozen ices)?
choose one of the following:
a.
rock and metal could not condense out of the solar nebula at extreme distances from the sun
b.
most of the metal in the solar system is locked up inside the terrestrial planets
c.
metals are not stable in the outer solar system
d.
elements that form ices (as opposed to rock & metals) are more abundant in our solar system
Chapter 12 Solutions
21st Century Astronomy
Ch. 12.1 - Prob. 12.1CYUCh. 12.2 - Prob. 12.2CYUCh. 12.3 - Prob. 12.3ACYUCh. 12.3 - Prob. 12.3BCYUCh. 12.4 - Prob. 12.4CYUCh. 12.5 - Prob. 12.5CYUCh. 12 - Prob. 1QPCh. 12 - Prob. 2QPCh. 12 - Prob. 3QPCh. 12 - Prob. 4QP
Ch. 12 - Prob. 5QPCh. 12 - Prob. 6QPCh. 12 - Prob. 7QPCh. 12 - Prob. 8QPCh. 12 - Prob. 9QPCh. 12 - Prob. 10QPCh. 12 - Prob. 11QPCh. 12 - Prob. 12QPCh. 12 - Prob. 13QPCh. 12 - Prob. 14QPCh. 12 - Prob. 15QPCh. 12 - Prob. 16QPCh. 12 - Prob. 17QPCh. 12 - Prob. 18QPCh. 12 - Prob. 19QPCh. 12 - Prob. 20QPCh. 12 - Prob. 22QPCh. 12 - Prob. 23QPCh. 12 - Prob. 24QPCh. 12 - Prob. 25QPCh. 12 - Prob. 26QPCh. 12 - Prob. 27QPCh. 12 - Prob. 28QPCh. 12 - Prob. 29QPCh. 12 - Prob. 30QPCh. 12 - Prob. 31QPCh. 12 - Prob. 32QPCh. 12 - Prob. 33QPCh. 12 - Prob. 34QPCh. 12 - Prob. 35QPCh. 12 - Prob. 36QPCh. 12 - Prob. 37QPCh. 12 - Prob. 38QPCh. 12 - Prob. 39QPCh. 12 - Prob. 40QPCh. 12 - Prob. 41QPCh. 12 - Prob. 42QPCh. 12 - Prob. 43QPCh. 12 - Prob. 44QP
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- GM What is the orbital velocity and period of a ring particle at the outer edge of Saturn's A ring? (Note: The radius of the edge of the A ring is 136,500 km. Hint: Use the formula for orbital velocity, V. = v orbital velocity km/s period hrarrow_forward2. Comet 1943 I has a period of 512 years and an eccentricity of 0.999914 and an inclination of 22 degrees. a. What is the comet's semi major axis? b. What are its perihelion and aphelion distances? c. What is the most likely source region of this object? d. What is its tisserand parameter and what does that tell you?arrow_forwardComet's have two tails, a dust tail and an ion tail, and each tail points in a unique direction. Briefly describe these directions.arrow_forward
- Look at the images of Comet Mrkos on the left page of Concept Art: Observations of Comets. Is the comet shown on its way in around the Sun, on its way out, or is it not possible to tell?arrow_forwardThe mass of an average comet’s nucleus is about 1014 kg. If the Oort cloud contains 21012 comet nuclei, what is the mass of the cloud in Earth masses? Compare that with Jupiter’s mass. (Note: Relevant data can be found in Appendix Table A-10.)arrow_forwardWhat is the orbital period of a comet nucleus in the Oort cloud? What is its orbital velocity? (Hints. Use Kepler’s third law in Chapter 4, section 3. The circumference of a circular orbit is 2r . Refer to the text for typical Oort cloud object distances from the Sun.)arrow_forward
- Which of the following is least reasonable regarding comets? Group of answer choices Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt and take less than than about 200 years to orbit the Sun. Long-period comets originate in the Oort cloud and can take millions of years to orbit around the Sun, in randomly oriented orbital planes. The ion tail of a comet tends to produce a blue glow, as the ions inside it absorb sunlight and re-emit the absorbed energy with a characteristic color (somewhat like the gas atoms in a neon light or in an Aurora). An ion tail is typically narrow and straight and always trails the comet, like long hair in the wind. The dust tail of a comet often looks curved and its whitish color is just reflected sunlight.arrow_forwardWhen far from the Sun, a comet consists only of its a. nucleus b. dust tail c. gas tail d. comaarrow_forward2GM The asteroid Pallas has a mass of 2.11 x 1020 kg and an average radius of about 256 km (2.56 x 102 km). What is its escape velocity (in m/s)? (Hints: Use the formula for escape velocity, V. = remember to convert units to m, kg, and s.) m/s Could you jump off the asteroid? O Yes O Noarrow_forward
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