Question

The sun has a mass of 1.99x10^30 kg and a radius of 6.955x10^8 m. What would be the weight of a 74.7 kg astronaut if she could stand on the surface of the sun?

Answer 1

In order to calculate the weight of the astronaut, let's use the formula for the gravitational force:

`F=(G*M*m)/(d^2)`

Where G is the gravitational constant (G = 6.67 * 10^-11), M is the greater mass, m is the smaller mass and d is the distance between the masses.

So we have:

`\begin{gathered} F=(6.67*10^(-11)*1.99*10^(30)*74.7)/(\left(6.955*10^8\right)^2) \\ F=(991.5155*10^(19))/(48.372025*10^(16)) \\ F=20.4977*10^3 \\ F=20497.7\text{ N} \end{gathered}`

Therefore the weight of the astronaut is 20497.7 N.