Astro

In-class Activity 1

Thursday, January 24

Question # 1

Jupiter is 778 million km from the Sun. How many AU is Jupiter from the Sun?

Question # 2

Sunlight takes 8.4 minutes to get from the Sun to Earth. When NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft passed Pluto in 2016, it was 33 AU from Earth. How long did it take for it’s transmitted images of Pluto to arrive at Earth?

a) Find the time in minutes. b) Find the time in hours.

Question # 3

Imagine that you could ride on spaceship. Suppose you wanted to reach Alpha Centauri in 100 years. How fast would you have to go, in km/hr? Alpha Centauri is 4.4 lightyears away from the Earth.

a) Find the distance from earth to Alpha Centauri in km.

b) Calculate hours in a year.

a) Write an expression for speed Use the expression Distance = Speed x Time

b) What should be the speed of the spaceship to arrive Alpha Centauri in 100 years?