Most galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have supermassive black holes at their centers. Recently, astronomers were able to track one star, named S2, as it orbited the black hole at the center of our galaxy. The star's actual orbit is elliptical, but we'll model it as a circular orbit. S2 has a period of 15 years and an orbit radius of 1000 au, where 1 au = 1 astronomical unit is the distance of the earth from the sun. a. What is the speed of S2? Give your answer as a fraction of c, where c is the speed of light, c=3.0×10^8m/s. b. What is the mass of the black hole? Give your answer as a multiple of Ms, where Ms is the solar mass, Ms=2.0×1030kg 2. A projectile is shot straight up from the earth's surface at a speed of 1.10×104 km/hr. How high does it go?
Gravitational force
In nature, every object is attracted by every other object. This phenomenon is called gravity. The force associated with gravity is called gravitational force. The gravitational force is the weakest force that exists in nature. The gravitational force is always attractive.
Acceleration Due to Gravity
In fundamental physics, gravity or gravitational force is the universal attractive force acting between all the matters that exist or exhibit. It is the weakest known force. Therefore no internal changes in an object occurs due to this force. On the other hand, it has control over the trajectories of bodies in the solar system and in the universe due to its vast scope and universal action. The free fall of objects on Earth and the motions of celestial bodies, according to Newton, are both determined by the same force. It was Newton who put forward that the moon is held by a strong attractive force exerted by the Earth which makes it revolve in a straight line. He was sure that this force is similar to the downward force which Earth exerts on all the objects on it.
1. Most galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have supermassive black holes at their centers. Recently, astronomers were able to track one star, named S2, as it orbited the black hole at the center of our galaxy. The star's actual orbit is elliptical, but we'll model it as a circular orbit. S2 has a period of 15 years and an orbit radius of 1000 au, where 1 au = 1 astronomical unit is the distance of the earth from the sun.
a. What is the speed of S2? Give your answer as a fraction of c, where c is the
b. What is the mass of the black hole? Give your answer as a multiple of Ms, where Ms is the solar mass, Ms=2.0×1030kg
Trending now
This is a popular solution!
Step by step
Solved in 4 steps with 4 images