Question

The Sun has a massive radius (110x the radius of the Earth). The Sun also has a gravitational acceleration 28x that of the Earth. Given this: would the orbital speed of a satellite orbiting the sun be greater than, less than, or equal to, the orbital speed it would have around the Earth?The Sun has a massive radius (110x the radius of the Earth). The Sun also has a gravitational acceleration 28x that of the Earth. Given this: would the orbital speed of a satellite orbiting the sun be greater than, less than, or equal to, the orbital speed it would have around the Earth?Equal toThere is not enough information to tell. Less thanGreater than

Answer 1

The orbital speed of the satellite in terms of the mass of the source body about which it is revolving is,

`v=\sqrt[]{(GM)/(r)}`

where r is the distance of the satellite from the center of the planet, G is the gravitational constant and M is the mass of the source body,

As the value of G and r will remain the same for Earth and Sun, but the value of the mass of the Sun is more than the mass of Earth.

Thus, the speed of the satellite around the sun is more than the speed of the satellite around the Earth.

Hence, the fourth option (greater than) is the correct answer.