In 2014, the European Space Agency placed a satellite in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and then landed a probe on the surface. The actual orbit was elliptical, but we’ll approximate it as a 50-km-diameter circular orbit with a period of 11 day.
a. What was the satellite’s orbital speed around the comet? (Both the comet and the satellite are orbiting the sun at a much higher speed.)
b. What is the mass of the comet?
c. The lander was pushed from the satellite, toward the comet, at a speed of 70 cm/s. and it then fell—taking about 7 hours—to the surface. What was its landing speed? The comet’s shape is irregular, but on average it has a diameter of 3.6 km.
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