Find the comet's perihelion and aphelion distances. Express your answers in astronomical units to three significant figures separated by a comma.

Question

De Vico's Comet orbits the Sun every 74.0 yearsand has an orbital eccentricity of 0.96.

Find the comet's perihelion and aphelion distances.

Express your answers in astronomical units to three significant figures separated by a comma.

Answer 1

Let's find the semi major axis using Kepler's Law.

a³=p² where a is in AU and p is in years.

a³=74²

a≈17.626 AU

Now, use the semi major axis to find the perihelion and aphelion distances.

Perihelion:

a(1-ε) → 17.626(1-0.96) = 0.705 AU

Aphelion:

a(1+ε) → 17.626(1+0.96) = 34.547 AU

Hope this helps!