Some comets, such as Halley's comet, are a permanent part of the solar system, traveling in elliptical orbits around the sun, other comments pass through the solar system only once, following a hyperbolic path with the sun at a focus. The figure shows the path of such a comet. Find an equation for the path, assuming that the closest the comet comes to the sun is 2 x 10^9 mi and that the path the comet was taking before it neared the solar system is at a right angle to the path it continues on after leaving the solar system.

College Algebra (MindTap Course List)
12th Edition
ISBN:9781305652231
Author:R. David Gustafson, Jeff Hughes
Publisher:R. David Gustafson, Jeff Hughes
Chapter7: Conic Sections And Quadratic Systems
Section7.1: The Circle And The Parabola
Problem 87E
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Some comets, such as Halley's comet, are a permanent part of the solar system, traveling in elliptical orbits around the sun, other comments pass through the solar system only once, following a hyperbolic path with the sun at a focus. The figure shows the path of such a comet. Find an equation for the path, assuming that the closest the comet comes to the sun is 2 x 10^9 mi and that the path the comet was taking before it neared the solar system is at a right angle to the path it continues on after leaving the solar system.

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