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11 years ago
Pretend you discover another planet in our solar system, and that this planet orbits the Sun in a circular orbit whose radius is one astronomical unit. Which of the following is most likely correct?

A. Earth will collide with your new planet
B. The two planets will have the same mass
C. The new planet has an orbital period of 1 year
D. The new planet has approximately the same surface temperature as Earth
E. The new planet will have life
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wrote...
#1
11 years ago
C
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topsecretmommtopsecretmomm
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11 years ago
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#3
11 years ago
All of the options are impossible to answer, A can only be determined if we know the speed of the orbit of the planet, for example Venus' orbit is 224.7 earth days, whereas Mars' year is 686.98 earth days, if the new planet has been orbiting earth for as long as Earth, than odds are it is traveling the same speed, which means it will never hit earth, if recently joined the orbit then odds are eventually they will collide. The orbit of a newly discovered planet cannot be determined without having the planet.
B cannot be answered because that is also a nearly random possibility, all the planets have widely differing masses, the smallest planet mercury is 1/16 the size of Earth, where Jupiter, the largest planet, is 121 times larger than Earth, and the size of another planet could technically be anywhere in between of even smaller or larger.
C would depend on many factors, the mass of the planet, its current distance from the object it is orbiting, any other masses exerting a pull on it, and probably other things, without the planets.
D depends on whether the planet has a similar atmosphere, Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system even though mercury is closer to the sun. The distance from the sun does not determine surface temperature.
E cannot be determined without knowing if the planet has an atmosphere or what the surface temperature is.

The most likely answer though would be A, because the velocity of a new object is highly unlikely to be the same as Earths.
wrote...
#4
11 years ago
C is correct.
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