Question

The fragments collided with Jupiter's atmosphere at a speed of about 60,000 m/s

(about 132,000 mph). The biggest fragment had a mass of 189,000,000,000 kg, or 1.39
x 10" kg. How much energy was released by the impact?

Answer 1

Answer: E = 5.004*10^(20) joules

Step-by-step explanation:

We do not have a lot of information about the impact, so we can assume that the energy released on the impact was the kinetic energy of the large fragment.

Remember that the kinetic energy of an object of mass M that moves at a velocity V is:

K = (M/2)*V^2

in this case, we know that the speed (that is equivalent to the velocity) is:

V = 60,000 m/s

And the mass is:

M = 1.39*10^(11) kg

Then the kinetic energy of the large fragment was:

K = (1.39*10^(11) kg/2)*( 60,000 m/s)^2 = 5.004*10^(20) joules.

Then we could conclude that the energy released on the impact was:

E = 5.004*10^(20) joules