You find a moon orbiting a planet.The moon has a period of 10 days,and the average distance between the moon and planet is 10⁶ km.What is the planet's mass? Note that the mass of Jupiter is 1.9 × 10²⁷ kg. A)0.1 M_Jupiter B)0.4 M_Jupiter C)1 M_Jupiter D)4 M_Jupiter E)10 M_Jupiter

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Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Using Kepler's third law, the mass of the planet can be calculated. The formula is M = (4π²a³)/(G T²), where a is the semi-major axis (distance), T is the period, and G is the gravitational constant. Plugging in the values, the mass is approximately 0.4 times the mass of Jupiter.

You Find a Moon Orbiting a Planet