Figuring for Yourself
Which would have the longer orbital period: a moon 1 million km from the center of Jupiter, or a moon 1 million km from the center of Earth? Why?
How close to Uranus would a spacecraft have to get to obtain the same resolution as in Example 12.1 with a camera that has an angular resolution of 2 arcsec?
Saturn’s A, B, and C Rings extend 75,000 to 137,000 km from the center of the planet. Use Kepler’s third law to calculate the difference between how long a particle at the inner edge and a particle at the outer edge of the three-ring system would take to revolve about the planet.
Use the information in Appendix G to calculate what you would weigh on Titan, Io, and Uranus’ moon Miranda.
The average distance of Enceladus from Saturn is 238,000 km; the average distance of Titan from Saturn is 1,222,000 km. How much longer does it take Titan to orbit Saturn compared to Enceladus?