astronomy

Kepler’s third law of planetary motion:

We’re going to look at an imaginary solar system. It has a star at the center and two planets.

· Planet 1, Jolene, is a huge planet like Jupiter, and it orbits close to the star.

· Planet 2, Chau, is a small Earth-like planet, and it orbits very far from the star.

Use this information to answer the following questions. For the first 4 questions, just guess (but guess in pen). We will return to these questions at the end.

1. Which of the planet, Jolene or Chau, do you think will orbit the star most quickly? Explain your reasoning.

2. If Jolene and Chau were to switch positions, would your answer to Question 1 change? If so, how? If not, why not?

3. Do you think the orbital period for Chau would increase, decrease, or stay the same if its mass were increased? Explain your reasoning.

4. Imagine both Chau and Jolene were in orbit around the same central star at the same distance (and that their orbital positions would never intersect--so that they would never collide). Which planet, Jolene or Chau, do you think will move around the central star in the least amount of time? Explain your reasoning.

Here is a table with some more information

5. Using the information in the table above, which of the answers below best describes how a planet’s mass affects its orbital period.

a. Planets that have small masses have longer orbital periods than planets with large masses.

b. Planets with the same mass will also have the same orbital period.

c. Planets that have large masses have longter orbital periods than planets with small masses.

d. A planet’s mass does not affect the orbital period.

Explain your reasoning and cite a specific example from the table or graph to support your choice.