THE PRACTICE STUDIO
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PRACTICE / Kepler laws
Two distances describe one ellipse
An unforced satellite in a bound Kepler orbit has nearest and farthest distances 8.0×10⁶ m and 24.0×10⁶ m from its dominant primary centre.
What is its orbital eccentricity?
Organize the givens & assumptions
- rₚ = 8.0×10⁶ m
- rₐ = 24.0×10⁶ m
Point-mass/spherical-primary inverse-square model; no thrust, drag or external perturbations; distances are centre distances.
- A
- B
- C
- D
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