Gah. Help with Astronomy Homework. ):?

Bernie mac

New member
I'm not really looking for the answers, but I just want to know how to DO the problem, so I can do it myself. I'm doing a web assign and it's asking these kinds of motions.

And yes, I know a squared = p cubed (or something, lol), but what does that mean?

Here's the questions:

An asteroid has a perihelion distance of 3.0 AU and an aphelion distance of 5.0 AU Calculate its orbital semi-major axis, eccentricity, and period.
semi-major axis ?
eccentricity ? Au
period ? years

And this one:

Halley's comet has a perihelion distance of 0.6 AU and an orbital period of 76 years. What is the aphelion distance of Halley's comet from the Sun?

And this one :x

How long would a radar signal take to complete a round trip between Earth and Mars when the two planets are 0.6 AU apart?

Gah. and this one.

The acceleration due to gravity at Earth's surface is 9.8 m/s2. What is the gravitational acceleration at the following altitudes? Take Earth's radius to be 6400 km.


Once again, I'm not looking for answers. I just need to know how to work the problems.

Thanks so much. I know it's a lot :/

kate
 
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