A planet (point mass) is orbiting a star with a mean anomaly of 10 astronomical units. The period of the orbit is 2 earth years. If the mass of the star is 4 times the mass of the planet, the mass of the planet in kilograms can be described as approximately 3*10^x . Find x .
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using harmonic law, P 2 = G ( M 1 + m 2 ) 4 π 2 R 3 , if the mass of the star is 4 times the mass of the planet, then P 2 = G ( 4 m 1 + m 1 ) 4 π 2 R 3 . substitute all the given values, we arrived at
3 . 1 3 × 1 0 x = ( 6 . 6 7 × 1 0 ) − 1 1 ( 5 ) ( 2 ) 2 4 π 2 ( 1 0 3 )
to get the value of x, apply the logarithms on both sides, and we get:
x = lo g 3 2 . 9 5 9 × 1 0 1 3 = 1 2 . 9 9 ≈ 1 3