Question

A meteoroid (small piece of rock) is initially at rest in deep space far from our Sun.

When the meteoroid just comes into contact with the Sun's gravitational field it begins to fall
toward the Sun along a radial straight line. With what speed does it strike the Sun? The Sun has
a mass of 2 x 1030 kg and a radius of 6.96 x 10° m.

Answer 1

The speed of the meteoroid when it strikes the Sun can be calculated using the formula for the escape velocity, which is the minimum speed an object must have in order to escape from the gravitational pull of a planet or star.

The formula for escape velocity is:

v_escape = (2GM/R)^(1/2)

where G is the gravitational constant (6.67 x 10^-11 N m^2/kg^2), M is the mass of the Sun, and R is its radius.

Plugging in the values, we get:

v_escape = (2 * 6.67 x 10^-11 * 2 x 10^30 / 6.96 x 10^8)^(1/2)

v_escape = 617.7 km/s

So the meteoroid strikes the Sun with a speed of approximately 617.7 km/s.