1

Lab #1, Part 1. Thinking “Astronomically”

In Astronomy and Planetary Science, we use quantities of time, length, mass and other
descriptive properties that may be very large or very small. In order to appreciate the subject, it is
helpful to incorporate appropriate scales of measurement that describe astronomical phenomena.
For instance, what does it really mean, in earthly terms, that the nearest star, Proxima
Centauri, is 4.0x1016 meters away vs. 2.7x105 Astronomical Units (AU) vs. 4.3 light years (ly)
away? The first does not give a very clear physical picture for the distance. We are always
looking for something that provides a gut understanding of the magnitude. Sure 1016 m is BIG.
We all know that! But how big? The Astronomical Unit is a better way to think about it. Recall
that 1 AU by definition is the mean (average) Sun-Earth distance. So Proxima Centauri is
270,000 times further from Earth than the Earth is from the Sun. That tells you something…that
the closest star to Earth is several million times farther than the Sun to Earth distance. Does this
provide a better physical picture? Yes! Most people would agree. And finally, the 4.3 light-
years… what does that tell you? Light-years are actually a measure of distance, not time—it is a
common mistake to take “two light-years” to mean that two years have passed, but it really refers
to a distance equal to the distance traveled by light in two years. To actually determine how
much time has passed, you would need to divide the number of light years by the speed of light.
This is only a direct comparison (4.3 light years to 4.3 years) when you are considering things
that travel at the speed of light—conveniently, light from stars would be one example. Light
emitted by Proxima Centauri (the closest star to Earth after the Sun) traveling at the speed of
light (at 300,000 kilometers per second or 3.0x105 km/s) takes 4.3 years to reach us. So you can
see that when appropriate units are chosen, some physical insight can be derived. If an asteroid
of 10-16 solar masses struck Los Angeles next month, would final exams be canceled? If the
weather on the surface of Venus includes a 750 K temperature forecast, would you need to bring
a sweater?
The following exercises will illustrate the basic units of distance, time, mass, and
temperature the critical elements of the language and concepts involved. The questions will also
serve to refresh your skills with conversion of units and scientific notation (powers of 10) as well
as review the basic dimensions of the planetary solar system. Finally, it is estimated that the
known Universe contains about 1022 stars. Very recently we have come to understand that most
stars do in fact have planets in revolution. So roughly there may be as many if not more planets
than stars in the observable Universe. How likely might life forms be? If only
0.00000000000001% of all planets harbor life, then there would be about one million (106)
planets that support some form of life!

Exercises:

To answer the following questions, use information given in the question and refer to the
supplement (at the end of the lab) for conversions. Reference tables in textbooks/online can
also help you figure out what should be reasonable. All final answers should be given only in
significant figures (i.e., after making all the calculations with the given numbers, round your
final answer to the number of significant figures in the problem). SHOW WORK (you will not
receive full credit if no work is shown). Your final submission should be a single, separate
document, whether handwritten and scanned in or as pictures—but they must be combined into a
 2

single document! Do not upload 10 different pictures. Free scanning apps like Adobe Scan or
CamScanner can help you with this. Make sure your pictures are legible before uploading.

1. Give complete, explicit numerical answers to the following problems (give the answer both in
scientific notation and as a decimal value, e.g. 1.01x106 = 1,010,000). It should not be
necessary to use your calculator on this exercise!
(a) 104 x 108
(b) 104 / 108
(c) 10-4 x 10-8
(d) 104 / 10-8
(e) 10-4 + 10-8
(f) 104 - 10-4
(g) 1,000,000 x 10,000
(h) 1,000 / 10,000,000,000
(i) 10,00010 (“ten thousand to the tenth power”) (just specify how many zeros should
follow the one)

Use of a calculator to compute and check your answers to the following problems is advised. Be
thinking about whether the “order of magnitude” of your answer is reasonable.

2. Match values in the left hand column with the equivalent expression in the right hand column
(the left hand column may have more than one answer):
A. 4.6 Gy (age of Earth) __________ a. 40 AU
B. 4 M (4 solar masses) _________ b. 6.3 x 108 km
C. 4.2 AU (distance between Jupiter and Earth) _________ c. 1.3 x 1010 y
D. 5 x 109 meters _________ d. 8 x 1030 kg
E. 12 Gy (age of the Milky Way) _________ e. 373 K
F. Boiling point of water, 212 oF _________ f. 5 x 1011 cm
G. 5700 K _________ g. 100 oC
H. 2997 oC _________ h. 64,000 pc
-4
I. 6.4 x 10 ly _________ i. 5427 F
j. 4.38 x 1012 days
k. 9800 F
l. 1.5 x 1017 s
3. Perform the following calculation and answer the questions:
(a) The Andromeda galaxy is 7.78 x 105 pc distant from Earth. How old is the light we
currently detect from this galaxy?
(b) How long does it take light generated at the Sun’s surface to reach Earth?

4. From the following table of planetary masses, answer the following questions:
(a) Where does the bulk of the mass of material in the solar system reside (not including
the Sun)?
 3

(b) If all of the planets in the solar system were to crash into the Sun, would its mass
change significantly? Justify your answer numerically, show all your work.
(c) If 10 Earths were added to the mass of Jupiter, would the entry in the table for the
mass of Jupiter change significantly? How can you tell by just looking at the table entries?

PLANET MASS (kg)

MERCURY 3.30 x 1023

VENUS 4.87 x 1024
EARTH 5.98 x 1024
MARS 6.42 x 1023
JUPITER 1.90 x 1027
SATURN 5.69 x 1026
URANUS 8.6 x 1025
NEPTUNE 1.03 x 1026
PLUTO 9 x 1021

5. There are about a trillion galaxies in the observable Universe and, on average, each galaxy
consists of about 300 billion stars.
a. How many stars are there in the observable Universe?
b. Estimate the total number of grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth! How does this
value compare with the answer to (a) above. {hint: a typical spherical grain of sand has a
diameter (d) of 1 mm, the volume of a sphere (a grain in this case) is V = (π/6) d 3. You may also
assume that a typical Earth beach width is 100 m, a typical beach depth is 50 m and that the total
extent (linear) of beaches on Earth is 5 times the circumference of Earth. The circumference of a
sphere is 2πR where R is the sphere radius. The radius of the Earth is 6300 km. [Hint: first
estimate of ‘volume of Beach’ on Earth. Then fill this volume with N grains of sand each of
fixed volume. You want to compute N]
c. Assume that 1% of the stars in the Universe possess habitable planets and that
biogenesis is not uncommon. How many worlds might exist with extant life forms (roughly)?

Lab #1, Part II. Simple Celestial Mechanics (Part I):

Please be aware there are two parts to this section, an A and a B,

each with their respective sets of problems to complete!
A. The Earth Perspective
The sky has been used for timekeeping and navigation for centuries. Early civilizations
that lacked advanced technology knew they could depend on the periodic nature of the
movements of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars, so they made pain-staking efforts to map them
 4

out. Our clocks, calendars, and seasons are all set to describe what has always been observed in
the sky. Similarly, simple observations of stars in the night sky can offer a decent quick
measurement of latitude and longitude of the observer. Read the supplementary chapter S1 in
your book to answer the following questions or use the internet if more convenient.

1. (a) What is a sidereal day? (b) What is a solar day? (c) Why is the solar day longer than
the sidereal day? {Hint: a simple diagram helps explain this}

2. Suppose the Earth rotated in the opposite direction from its current direction. Would the
solar day be longer or shorter than the sidereal day? Explain.

3. Why do we have leap years?

4. Why is Venus only visible just before sunrise or just after sunset?

5. (a) Does observing the transit of Mercury or Venus contradict the geocentric view of our
solar system? (b) What about the occasional times when Mercury or Venus pass directly
behind the Sun as seen from Earth—that is, when they are eclipsed by the Sun? Would
observation of a planet eclipsed by the Sun support or refute the heliocentric model? What
about the geocentric model? (See fig 3.14 Ptolemy’s model)

6. (a) If an observer in the Northern Hemisphere measures the altitude of Polaris to be 35

degrees, what is their latitude? (b) Why would it have been very difficult for early travelers
to measure longitude?

B. Celestial Mechanics Problems

Show all work! Ensure all units are SI units and round your final answers to the correct
number of significant figures (some factors you may find useful are given below; note that
tables in the text have a lot of data; when working any problem be sure to convert to a consistent
set of units). Use these given numbers and conversions in the following questions:

G = 6.67 x 10-11 N m2 / kg2 radius of the Moon = 1738 km

Mass of Sun = 2 x 1030 kg Moon density = 3340 kg/m3
1 year = 3.15 x 107 sec Earth density = 5520 kg/m3
1 AU = 1.5 x 108 km radius of Earth = 6378 km
Mass of Earth = 6 x 1024 kg

1. As part of a joint Afghanistan-American expedition to Mars, you have been selected to

descend to the surface from the parent ship that will orbit the Red Planet. Mars has a radius 0.53
times that of Earth and a mass equal to 0.11 times the mass of the Earth.

a. What will you weigh (in the formal definition, use units of Newtons) when you touch
down and walk on the rocky, windswept surface of Mars? Show your work.
 5

b. Calculate the orbital radius and velocity of the parent ship if it were to stay in a circular
synchronous orbit around Mars. Why are these values different than those for Earth?
Show your work.
{Hint: a synchronous orbit is the condition in which the secondary body orbits the
primary in the same amount of time that the primary body rotates (spins) once on its axis.
For example, imagine a spacecraft orbiting (revolving) around a planet in the same
amount of time the planet rotates on its axis. This means that an observer on the planet
always sees the revolving secondary body directly overhead. In other words, the object
never falls below the horizon but instead ‘hangs out’ at one place in the sky as seen by an
observer on the surface of the planet. If one wanted to monitor a specific location
continuously, the idea would be to place a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit above that
particular location. Then the satellite would be able to watch that location continuously.
If the satellite had IR detectors it could watch at night as well. Many weather satellites
occupy geosynchronous orbits (or approximately so) and have sensors to monitor in the
visible and IR parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Because water vapor absorbs in the
IR, its concentration in the atmosphere in the gaseous state (i.e., other than in clouds
(water droplets or ice crystals) can also be determined by satellite measurement.

2. What is the period (P) of asteroid Vesta that circles the Sun with a mean orbital radius of 2.4
AU? Give your answer in both seconds and Earth years. What would be the distance from the
Sun of a planet whose orbital period is 45.66 days? Show your calculations!

3. If Earth were twice as massive as it presently is, would its period of revolution around the Sun
change by a significant amount? Why?

4. By what factor would a person's weight at the surface of the Earth be reduced if:
a) The Earth had its present mass but eight times its present volume (hint: volume is
proportional to the radius cubed) Show your work.

b) The Earth had its present size but contained only one-third its present mass. Show
your work.

5. Show that the acceleration due to gravity on Earth is 9.8 m/s2. What is the acceleration due to
gravity on the Moon (hint: what is the mass of the Moon and what is its radius)?

6. Pluto’s moon Charon orbits Pluto every 6.4 days with a semi major axis of 19,700 km.
(a) Calculate the combined mass of Pluto and Charon. Compare this to the Mass of Earth of
6x1024 kg. (b) Calculate the orbital period of the Space Shuttle in an orbit 300 km above the
Earth’s surface—don’t forget to add the radius of the Earth to this calculation! (c) The Sun
orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy every 230 million years at a distance of 28,000
light-years. Use this information to estimate the Mass of the Milky Way Galaxy. Show all
work for each question.

7. Halley’s comet makes perihelion at 1 AU once every 76 years. (a) What is the semi-major
diameter of the orbit of Halley’s orbit? What is the eccentricity of Halley’s comet? Show
your work.
 6

Part I Supplementary Info: Astronomical Scales and Units

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
All data have some uncertainty associated with them. This is a really important point to keep in
mind whenever looking at any dataset. Reporting data using significant figures helps make it
clear how uncertain a given value is. The “significant figures” are the ones that give meaningful
information about the accuracy and precision of a measured value. All answers in this class
should be given in significant figures.

Rules for identifying which figures in a number are significant:

• All non-zero digits are significant.
• All zero digits in between non-zero digits are significant.
• Leading zeros (i.e., zeroes in front of a non-zero number) are not significant. For example,
the zeros in “007” and “0.0053” are not significant. “007” only has one significant figure
and “0.0053” has two significant figures.
• Trailing zeros (i.e., zeros that follow non-zero numbers) are only significant if there is a
decimal point because the decimal point acts to inform you how precisely the number is
known. “7600” only has two significant figures but “7600.” has four. Similarly, “0.02600”
has four significant figures.
• When multiplying and dividing, the least number of significant figures in any of the
given quantities determines the number of significant figures in your answer (e.g.,
23*15.2 = 349.6 ≈ 350 since “23” only has two significant figures, so the answer “350”
should only have two significant figures).
• When adding and subtracting, your answer should not have any more digits to the right of
the decimal than the given quantity with the least number of digits to the right of the
decimal (e.g., 14.02+15.1 = 29.12 ≈ 29.1 since “15.1” only has one digit to the right of
the decimal and is your least precise measurement)

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION: A QUICK REVIEW

Extraordinarily large distances and time spans are typical in discussions of astronomical concepts.
Scientific notation is the accepted “shorthand” for expressing extremely large or small numbers
in terms of factors (or exponents) of ten. The exponent is written as a superscript number that
represents the number of factors of 10 that must be multiplied together to give the desired
quantity, for example:
1
10 = 10
2
10 = 10 x 10 =100
3
10 = 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000 etc.

In the case of very small numbers, the exponent is negative and is used to indicate the number of
decimal places:
10-1 = 1 /10 = 0.1
 7

10-2 = 1 / (10 x 10) = 0.01

10-3 = 1 / (10 x 10 x 10) = 0.001 etc.

We can see how useful the system becomes with some appropriate examples:
Age of the Earth: 4,600,000,000 yrs = 4.6 x 109 yrs
Distance from Earth to Sun: 150,000,000 km= 1.5 x 108 km
Earth’s mass: 5,980,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg = 5.98 x 1024 kg
Gravitational constant: 0.000 000 000 066 7 Nm2kg-2 = 6.67 x 10-11N m2 kg-2

• Remember that 10X is written longhand as a 1 followed by X zeros. When dividing powers
of 10, subtract the exponents (e.g. 102/105 = 10-3) and when multiplying, add the exponents
(104 x 102 = 106).

UNITS
A physical quantity has two essential attributes, magnitude and dimension. For example,
the quantity ‘2 meters’ has the dimension of length and magnitude equal to twice the magnitude
of the meter. In general, a physical quantity is specified by a number and a unit. All physical
quantities can be expressed in terms of the seven ‘base’ quantities whose names and symbols are
listed in the first two columns of Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Base physical quantities and SI units

Physical Symbol for
quantity Quantity Name of SI Symbol for SI unit
unit
length l meter m
mass m kilogram kg
time t second s
electric current I ampere A
temperature T Kelvin K
amount of substance n mole mol
luminous intensity Iv candela cd

The symbols in column 2 define the dimensions of the base physical quantities, and the
dimensions of all other quantities can be expressed in terms of them. For example, velocity (or,
more precisely, speed) is distance travelled in unit time, and has dimensions of length divided by
time, l/t. The dimensions of a physical quantity are independent of the system of units used to
describe its value. Every system of units must, however, conform with the dimensions; for
example, in a system of units in which the unit of length is the meter, m, and the unit of time is
the second, s, the unit of velocity is meter per second, m·s-1. Some physical quantities have no
dimensions. This is the case for a quantity that is the ratio of two others with the same
dimensions; examples are relative density, relative molar mass, and mole fraction.
Units obey the laws of ordinary algebra and the dimensions, and therefore the units, must
match on the two sides of an equation.
 8

Example: For the ideal-gas equation, pV = nRT, the dimensions of pV are those of work (or
energy):

The corresponding expression in terms of SI units is Pa m3 = J. On the right-hand side of the

ideal-gas equation, for nRT,

so both sides of the equation have the same units as required.

A variety of systems of units are in use, many tailored to the needs of particular
disciplines in the physical sciences. The recommended system for the physical sciences is the
International System of Units (SI) which is based on the seven base units whose names and
symbols are listed in columns 3 and 4 in Table 1.1. Every physical quantity has an SI unit
determined by its dimensionality; the SI unit of velocity is meter per second, m·s –1. In addition
to the base units, a number of quantities that are particularly important in the physical sciences
have been given SI names and symbols. Some of these are listed in Table 1.2.

Table 1.2: SI derived units with special names and symbols

Physical
quantity Name Symbol Description
frequency hertz Hz events per unit time s-1
force newton N mass x acceleration kg·m·s-2
pressure pascal Pa force per unit area N·m-2
energy, work, heat joule J force x distance N·m
power watt W work per unit time J·s-1

Prefixes
Decimal multiples of SI units have names formed from the names of the units and the prefixes
listed in Table 1.3. For example, a picometer is pm = 10-12 m, and a decimeter dm = 10-1 m.

Table 1.3: SI prefixes

Multiple Prefix Symbol
 9

10 deca da
102 hecto h
103 kilo k
106 mega M
109 giga G
1012 tera T
1015 peta P
1018 exa E

10-1 deci d
10-2 centi c
10-3 milli m
10-6 micro m
10-9 nano n
10-12 pico p
10-15 femto f
10-18 atto a

ORDER OF MAGNITUDE
Powers of 10 are often used as a description of the order of magnitude; for example, if a
length A is two orders of magnitude larger than length B, then it is about 102 = 100 times larger.
In some calculations that involve a wide range of orders of magnitude, it can be helpful, as an aid
to avoiding errors, to calculate the order of magnitude answer before embarking on the full
detailed calculation. The simplest way of performing such an ‘order of magnitude calculation’ is
to covert all physical quantities to base SI units and to approximate the magnitude of each by an
appropriate power of ten, possibly multiplied by an integer. Such calculations are often
surprisingly accurate.

Example:

Two estimates of the answer are:

DISTANCE
On Earth, we commonly use miles (or the metric unit, kilometers, 1 km = 0.62 mi) to
measure distances between points of interest. Fractions, tens, or perhaps thousands of miles
 10

suffice to describe most journeys. But this system gets cumbersome when discussing the millions
and billions of miles that separate planets, stars, and galaxies. In order to represent conveniently
and arithmetically manipulate such huge distances, the following terms have been developed.
You should know what they are and what they mean, for they will appear again and again in
your reading and in lecture.

Astronomical Unit (AU) = the distance between the Earth and the Sun (about 93,000,000 miles
or 150,000,000 km). This is a convenient measure of interplanetary distances within our solar
system. The radius of the solar system, measured from the Sun to the furthest point in the orbit of
Neptune, is about 30 AU.

Light Year (ly) = The distance light travels, in a vacuum, in one Earth year, 5.88 x 1012 miles or
9.46 x 1012 km. The speed of light in the vacuum of space is 6.7 x 108 mph or 3.0 x 105 km/sec.
According to the laws of physics, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (so don’t
EVER give an answer that contradicts this!).

Parsec (pc) = The distance of an object whose stellar parallax (one half the apparent angular
shift in the position of a celestial object with respect to a distant background when viewed from
the Earth over a six month interval; we’ll get more into detail in future labs) is equal to one arc
second. For now, know that a parsec is 3.26 ly or 2.06 x 105 AU or 1.92 x 1013 miles or 3.09
x 1013 km. Both light years and parsecs are commonly used to describe interstellar or
intergalactic distances.

TEMPERATURE

Here in Santa Barbara, it is an unusual day when temperatures go above 90oF or below
40oF. Now, as our concept of temperature is stretched to include the internal working
temperature of our Sun or the constant deep freeze on the outer moons of Jupiter, we'll again be
resetting our scales. In class and in your reading, you will probably come across temperature
values in both Fahrenheit (°F) and Centigrade (°C). To convert between them use the following:
°C = (5/9)*(°F - 32)
°F = (1.8*°C) + 32
Many of the physical sciences use a third temperature scale, the Kelvin (or “absolute”)
scale that is based on absolute zero, and the temperature at which all molecular motion virtually
ceases. It is necessary to use the absolute temperature scale when comparing the relative hotness
or coldness of objects. To convert to degrees Kelvin, simply add 273 to degrees Centigrade:
K = °C + 273

MASS
Another important unit of measurement to review here is that of mass. Mass is an
inherent property of all matter, and the gravitational force exerted by an object (such as a planet
or star) is directly proportional to its mass. Mass is different, remember, from weight which
involves the local gravitational pull (e.g. you would weigh less today on the Moon where gravity
is less than on Earth, even though your mass remains unchanged).
 11

The metric unit of mass that we will be using is the gram (g) and its relatives, the
kilogram (kg, 1000 grams), milligrams (mg, 10-3 of a gram) etc. A human weighing 150 lbs
(ON EARTH!) has a mass of about 68,000 g or 68 kg. The Earth's mass is about 6 x 1024 kg;
this is called one Earth mass or M. The subscript of a circle with a cross means planet Earth.
Another common reference mass is the solar mass, or 2 x 1030 kg. It is often denoted by the
symbol: M

TIME
When discussing the duration and age of most planetary and stellar phenomena, we will
again move beyond our familiar clocks and calendars that measure minutes, hours, years, and
decades. Instead, we will deal with spans of time that are mind-boggling. A convenient symbol
for a billion years (109 ) is Gy or Ga where G stands for “Giga” or the Greek prefix meaning
“billion.” For instance, the age of the universe is known to be 13.7 billion years (13.7 x 109
years). Our galaxy, the Milky Way, probably formed within 0.5 Gyrs of the birth of the Universe.
So the Milky Way age is around 13 Gyrs. In contrast, the Earth is only a little more than four and
a half billion (4.6 x 109) years old (~4.56 Gyrs). Other prefixes may be used to stand for million
(“Mega”, My or Ma), thousand (“Kilo” ka), and so on (see Table 1.3).

Part 2 Supplementary Info: Celestial Mechanics (Part I)

KEPLER'S LAWS

The German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was the first to describe accurately the
motion of the planets through the sky. Kepler's work was based on the observations made earlier
by Tycho Brahe. After much trial and error, Kepler was able to enumerate three empirical rules
now called Kepler's Laws. Some years later Isaac Newton developed the “universal” laws of
gravitation and was able to show the underlying mathematics to explain (or derive from first
principles) Kepler’s three empirical ‘laws. These are:
(1) The planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.
(2) A line joining any planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
(3) The square of the period (P2) of any planet is proportional to the cube (a3) of the mean
distance the planet is from the Sun {Recall that for a circular orbit the mean distance is exactly
the radius of the orbit}. That is:
P 2 µ a3 (1)
This says P-squared "is proportional to" a-cubed. P is the period or length of time it takes
the secondary body (e.g., a planet) to revolve around the primary body (e.g., the Sun). It also
says that the period of the space station around the Earth is determined by the distance from the
Earth’s center to the Space Station. While it takes 1 yr for the Earth to orbit the Sun, it takes
about 90 min for the Space Station to orbit the Earth in low Earth orbit (altitude above surface
~350 km). The Space Station moves at a speed of about 7700 m/s (7.7 km/s) around the Earth.
 12

Figure 1. A graphical illustration of Kepler’s second law. A planet rotates about the Sun on an elliptical orbit with
the Sun at one focus. Each position of the planet represents an equal amount of time since the last position. Since a
line joining the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times, the area of the light and dark triangles are
equal. As a result, the planet must move fastest when it is closest to the Sun (at perihelion) and slowest when it is
furthest from the Sun (at aphelion).

Finally, for a secondary (mass m) object orbiting a primary (mass M) object on an elliptical
path with eccentricity between zero (circular) and e < 1 (parabolic e=1), the smallest distance
between the Primary and Secondary is the perihelion distance rp=a(1-e) and the largest distance
at aphelion is ra=a (1+e) where a is the semi-major diameter of the orbit and e is the eccentricity
of the secondary body. Note that the combined use of Kepler’s-Newton’s relation (P2~a3) with
the perihelion or aphelion distance enable one to determine the eccentricity of an orbit. The short
period comets like Halley’s have quite eccentric orbits. Hence, they spend most of their time at
great distances from Sun only to swing by the Sun (and Earth) and become visible from Earth
every so often (periods in years).

Example 1
The mean distances of Jupiter and Earth from the Sun are 5.2 AU and 1 AU respectively.
The period of Earth's revolution is one year. What is the period of Jupiter? Use Kepler's third law.

Solution
Kepler's third law states that:
P2 µ a3
2 3
To make this an equation we can say P =Ca or the square of the period equals some constant C
times the cube of the semi-major diameter of the orbit. The semi major diameter of the orbit is
the average Sun-planet distance. If the orbit were circular, the semi-major diameter would be the
radius of the orbit. Because this is a ratio problem the C will drop out as noted below when we
take the RATIO of Jupiter’s period to that of the Earth:
Since this holds for any planet orbiting the Sun, we may write:
P 2J a 3J
=
P 2E a 3E

Rearrange this to find PJ. That is:

Now, plug the numbers in:

 13

So it takes 11.86 Earth years for Jupiter to orbit the Sun.

It is important to note that the constant C in the Kepler’s Law will depend on the UNITS used to
express length and time and for the mass of the primary body. For objects in the Solar system in
revolution around the Sun, the constant C= 1 y2 / AU3. For units of seconds and meters, the
constant C is different. Newton showed the constant C depends on the mass of both the primary
and secondary bodies (more on this later)

Example 2
The revolution period (P) of Neptune around the Sun is 164.8 Earth years. What is the
mean distance of Neptune from the Sun?

Solution
Kepler's third law states the orbital period squared (P2) is proportional to the mean
distance cubed. In order to turn this into an equation, we can write P2 = Ca3 where C is a
constant. The constant C depends on the units used and the mass of the Primary body (the
Sun). In fact, Newton’s elaboration of Kepler’s Third Law showed that C=4π2/G (M+m).
NOTE THAT THE MASS OF NEPTUNE can be neglected since the mass of the Sun is
so much bigger than the mass of Neptune (and any other planet, that is M>>>m)). For
objects in revolution about the Sun, if we measure their periods and distances with
respect to the Earth's, we have P2= a3 with C= 1 y2/AU3 Therefore we can find that a=
2/3
P :
a = (164.8 y)2/3 = 30.1 AU

Important Note: You can only use the formula a=P2/3 for objects that have the Sun as
the primary body. If the object rotates around anything other than the Sun, such as a
different star or a planet, you will have to use the form of the third law as modified by
Newton (equation (7)) in these notes.

NEWTON'S LAWS OF MOTION

Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was one of the greatest intellects of all time. His three laws of motion
are the historical foundation of much of our knowledge about the way the universe works:
1. Every object continues in a state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line unless it is
compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.
2. The change of motion is proportional to the force impressed, and it is made in the
direction of the straight line in which that force acts.
 14

3. To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction; or, the mutual actions of
two bodies upon each other are always equal and act in opposite directions.

A concise statement of Newton's second law is as follows:

F = ma (2)

where F is the force (in Newtons, N), m is the mass (in kg), and a is the acceleration of the body
(in m/s2). Note that the acceleration is not the same as the semi-major diameter of an orbit which
is also denoted by the symbol a. The SI unit of force is called the Newton (N). Note that a
Newton is has SI units of kg·m·s-2. The arrows above the force and acceleration just tell us that a
force has a magnitude AND a direction. This makes it a vector rather than scalar quantity. The
important part is to realize that when a force exists on one object by another there is also a
direction implied. We drop the vector notation in what follows; the concept of a vector having
both a magnitude and direction should be kept in mind.

NEWTON'S UNIVERSAL LAW OF GRAVITATION

Building upon the foundations of physics established by Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo,
Newton developed a mathematical description of gravitational attraction that served to unify and
explain the motions of the planets and their moons and uniting these motions with everyday
motions on Earth (the proverbial fall of the apple!) By carefully measuring the path of the
Moon's orbit about the Earth, Newton demonstrated that the force of gravity is proportional to
the inverse square of the distance. Expressed in a simple formula this important relationship is:
(3)

where: F = force of gravitational attraction between two bodies of mass M and m

G = gravitational constant (6.67x10-11 N m2 kg-2)
M = mass of larger body (in kg)
m = mass of smaller body (in kg)
R = distance between centers of mass of bodies of mass M and m (in meters)

The gravitational constant G is 6.67 x 10-11 N.m2/kg2, expressed in SI units (kg-m-s).

Recall that N is an abbreviation for Newton or kg.m/s2, the SI unit of force. This basic formula is
used to solve many problems in orbital mechanics.

Example 4
Find the force of attraction between a 60-kg object and a 50-kg object when they are 0.5
m apart. Assume they are point masses.

Solution
 15

It is important to distinguish between the weight of an object and its corresponding mass.
The mass of an object is a fundamental quantity that is constant. On the other hand, the weight of
an object is actually the force with which it is pulled towards another, usually more massive
object. If we imagine a person standing on the surface of a planet, that there is a force acting on
that person towards the center of the Earth (subscript is ) towards the center of the body
according to:

Gm person M Å
F=
R2

where M is the mass of the Earth (in this case the primary body), R is the distance between the
primary body (center of Earth) and the secondary body (person of mass m). This distance is the
radius of the Earth. If the force of gravity is attracting you to the Earth, why don’t you fall
through the Earth? According to Newton’s Third law, there is an opposite and equal force that is
pushing you away from the earth by the ground. These two forces balance one another: the
gravity of attraction against the force pushing back. Since there is no unbalanced force acting,
you are at rest (forget about rotation of the Earth for now). Now, for any object on the earth, the
GM Å
quantity is the same. We call this quantity 'the acceleration due to gravity' and because we
RÅ2
use it so often we assign it a symbol: g= GM Å . Now, we can write:
RÅ2
GM Å
F= mg since g = (4)
RÅ2

Consequently, a person's weight will vary according to the local acceleration due to gravity since
g depends on the mass of the primary body and the distance between the center of the body and
the center of the object (person) attracted to that body. We call F the weight of a person and we
can convert from Newton’s to pounds provided we know the mass and radius of the planet. So
you may weigh 140 lbs on Earth but on Mars you would weigh less because the g of Mars is
smaller than the g of Earth.
Newton showed that in general when an object (such as a planet, satellite, or comet)
moves around a body (such as the Sun) to which it is attracted by a force, which varies as 1/r 2,
the path of the object is either a circle, an ellipse, a parabola, or a hyperbola. Note that a circle is
 16

simply an ellipse of eccentricity = 0 and a parabola is a ‘degenerate ellipse’ with an eccentricity

of e=1. The parabolic and hyperbolic paths apply to objects that make a single pass by the
primary and never return. These are called OPEN orbits. The other orbits (elliptical and
circular) are called closed orbits. Essentially, the secondary body is captured by the Primary
body. The only possible closed orbit in an inverse square force field is the ellipse (a circle being
a special case of an ellipse with eccentricity (e) = zero). Therefore, we see that Kepler's first law
is a direct consequence of Newton's laws of gravity. Newton's universal law of gravitation
enables us to restate Kepler's third law in a more general way:
4p 2 a 3
P2 =
G (M+ m) (5)
where P is the period of revolution (dimensions of time, units of seconds), ‘a’ is the semi-major
diameter of the orbit (if orbit is circular, then ‘a’ is the radius of the circular orbit), G is the
universal gravitational constant (6.67 x 10-11 Nm2/kg2) and M is the mass of the primary body
at the focus of the ellipse. Note that although the mass of the smaller body enters into the relation,
because M >> m, since the mass of the Sun (the primary body) is MANY orders of magnitude
bigger than the mass of the secondary body (a planet or an asteroid or a comet), then M+m  M.
That is, we may generally neglect the mass of the secondary body if M>>m. Recall that Kepler
noted that P2 was proportional to a3. Newton’s contribution was to show how the constant of
proportionality could be unambiguously determined knowing the mass of the two objects and the
Universal Gravitational Constant G (BIG G…. not to be confused with little g! (=GM/R2))

Important Note: When using this formula, use SI units for all the variables. So be sure
to convert all of the units to SI units before using them in this equation or any other.

Example 5
Mars has a natural satellite called Phobos with a period of 460 minutes and a mean orbital
radius of 9.4 x 106 m. What is the mass of Mars? Check your solution with the value found in
the textbook or from data tables online.

Solution
Since Phobos is in orbit around Mars rather than the Sun, we cannot use the P2= a3 form
of Kepler’s Third Law. Instead, we will have to use the more general form. Rearrange the
Kepler-Newton relation to find the mass of the primary (Mars). (NB: since the mass of Mars is
so much bigger than the mass of Phobos we can drop the m term in (7)).

Plug in the numbers and find

If you check the textbook for the official mass of Mars you will see the Kepler’s law really
works.
 17

Velocity of objects in orbit

The instantaneous velocity of an object moving in a central force field may be found according
to

(6)
where r is the distance between the object and the primary body located at the focus of the
elliptical orbit (or the center of a circular orbit of eccentricity e=0) and v is the velocity when the
object is at distance r from the primary body at the focus.

Example 6
Show that for a circular orbit the velocity is given by:

(7)

Solution
The expression:

is valid for all orbits regardless of form (circular, elliptical, parabolic and hyperbolic). Now, in
the special case of a circular orbit, note that r= a and hence:

2GM GM GM
v2 = - =
a a a
Or after some further simplification:

GM
v=
a