COSMIC PERSPECTIVE
9th Edition
ISBN: 9780135729458
Author: Bennett
Publisher: PEARSON
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Chapter 12, Problem 50EAP
To determine
To Calculate: The total volume of the Oort cloud, space occupied by each comet there and comet’s typical spacing.
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It is believed that there are 1.6*10^12 comets in the spherical Oort Cloud,which has radius of 46000 AU.Calculate the average volume that each comet has to itself.Then take cube root of average volume per comet to find their typical spacing in AU.
A typical comet contains some 1013 kg of water ice. How many comets would have to strike Earth in order to account for the roughly 2×1021 kg of water presently found on our planet? (Hint: simple division) If this amount of water accumulated over a period of 500 million years, how frequently must Earth have been hit by comets during that time? (Hint: Calculate, on the average, how many comets hit the Earth per year during that time.)
Tutorial
You observe a comet 0.32 AU from Earth with a tail that is 1.7 degrees long. How long is the tail in AU?
How long is the tail in kilometers?
How many times could the U.S. fit along the length of the tail? (The width of the U.S. is 4,313 km.)
Part 1 of 3
You observe a comet 0.32 AU from Earth with a tail that is 1.7 degrees long. How long is the tail in AU?
We use the small angle formula to calculate the length of the tail in AU.
arc seconds d
Ꮎ
2.06 x 105
D
Solving for the linear distance gives:
dAU = DAU
dAU =
=
AU
arc seconds
2.06 x 105
Chapter 12 Solutions
COSMIC PERSPECTIVE
Ch. 12 - Prob. 1VSCCh. 12 - Use the following questions to check your...Ch. 12 - Use the following questions to check your...Ch. 12 - Prob. 4VSCCh. 12 - Use the following questions to check your...Ch. 12 - 1. Briefly define asteroid. comet, dwarf planet,...Ch. 12 - Briefly describe asteroid sizes, shapes, masses,...Ch. 12 - 3. Distinguish between primitive meteorites and...Ch. 12 - 4. What do meteorites and spacecraft observations...Ch. 12 - Prob. 5EAP
Ch. 12 - Prob. 6EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 7EAPCh. 12 - How do we know the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud...Ch. 12 - Prob. 9EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 10EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 11EAPCh. 12 - Briefly describe the evidence suggesting that an...Ch. 12 - Prob. 13EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 14EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 15EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 16EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 17EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 18EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 19EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 20EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 21EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 22EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 23EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 24EAPCh. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - Choose the best answer to each of the following....Ch. 12 - The Role of Jupiter. Suppose that Jupiter had...Ch. 12 - Prob. 41EAPCh. 12 - Prob. 42EAPCh. 12 - Comet Tails. Describe in your own words why comets...Ch. 12 - Prob. 44EAPCh. 12 - Adding Up Asteroids. It’s estimated that there are...Ch. 12 - Impact Energies. A relatively small impact crater...Ch. 12 - The “Near Miss” of Toutatis. The 5-kilometer...Ch. 12 - Prob. 50EAPCh. 12 - Comet Temperatures. Find the “no greenhouse”...Ch. 12 - Comet Dust Accumulation. A few hundred tons of...
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- suppose that the oort comet cloud contains 10^12 comets, with an average comet diameter of 10km. Calculate the mass of a comet 10km in diameter, assuiming that it is composed mostly of water ice (density of 1g/cm^3). Next calculate the total mass of the comet cloud. finally, compare this mass with that of the Earth and Jupiter.arrow_forwardThere is one part to this question. I need to know the km. Thank you!arrow_forwardIf you saw Comet Halley when the comet was 0.8 AU from Earth and you observed a visible tail 4 degrees long, how long was the tail in kilometers? (Hint: Use the small-angle formula.) (Note: 1 AU = 1.5 ✕ 109 km.) Suppose that the tail was not perpendicular to your line of sight. Is your first answer too large or too small?arrow_forward
- There is one part to this question. I need to know the days. Thank you!arrow_forwardConsider an asteroid that orbits in a relatively circular orbit with a semimajor axis a = 2 au from the Sun. A typical asteroid has an albedo, or reflectivity, A ~ 0.3. At our closest approach to the asteroid, we make a measurement of the flux coming from the asteroid to be F = 3 × 10-15 w m-2. What is the radius of the asteroid in km? Include a labelled diagram along with your calculations.arrow_forwardPlease provide the solution of advance physics.arrow_forward
- You observe a comet 0.46 AU from Earth with a tail that is 1.7 degrees long. How long is the tail in AU? How long is the tail in kilometers? How many times could the U.S. fit along the length of the tail? (The width of the U.S. is 4,313 km.)arrow_forwardIf you saw Comet Halley when the comet was 0.4 AU from Earth and you observed a visible tail 3 degrees long, how long was the tail in kilometers? (Hint: Use the small-angle formula.) (Note: 1 AU = 1.5 ✕ 109 km.)arrow_forwardIf you saw Comet Halley when the comet was 0.8 AU from Earth and you observed a visible tail 4 degrees long, how long was the tail in kilometers? (Hint: Use the small-angle formula.) (Note: 1 AU = 1.5 x 10° km.) X kmarrow_forward
- A comet’s perihelion distance is 1 AU, and its aphelion distance is 15 AU. In the following, we make a very crude calculation of the average rate of shrinkage of the comet.(a) Calculate the comet’s orbital period.(b) Estimate how many meters of ice the comet will lose each time it orbits the Sun. (Hint: To simplify the calculations, you may assume that ice sublimates off the comet’s surface during one tenth of its orbital period, that the average cometary distance over that period is 1.5 AU and the density of the cometary ice is 600 kg m−3.)arrow_forwardUsing the version of Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Calculate the orbital period of an Oort cloud comet if the semimajor axis of the comet's orbit is 50,000 AU.arrow_forwardIt is believed that there are a 1.2 × 1012 comets in the Oort Cloud, which has a radius of 74000.0 AU. What is the total volume of the Oort Cloud in cubic AU?arrow_forward
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