Question

These are the orbit sizes of two of Jupiter's moons: Io orbit semi-major axis 0.002819 AU (1.87 Jupiter's diameter) Europa orbit semi-major axis 0.004473 AU (2.98 Jupiter's diameter) Io's orbital period is _________ than Europa's and calculating Jupiter's mass using Io's orbit would give you _________ mass of Jupiter compared to using Europa's orbit

Answer 1

a. Shorter

b. Same mass

Step-by-step explanation:

a.- From the question, lo has an orbit size of 0.002819 AU while Europa has an orbit size of 0.004473 AU.

-It is evident from this information that Europa's orbit size is greater than that of lo.

-Hence, Lo's orbital period is shorter than Europa's.

b. The mass of Jupiter's moons in their orbit around Jupiter depends upon the mass of Jupiter and the inverse square of the moon's distance from Jupiter.

-As such, any object around Jupiter can be used to determine Jupiter's mass and results in the same mass.