Mercury, Venus, and Earth are the three planets closest to the sun. Would their combined distance from the sun be greater or less than the distance from the sun to Neptune? Show your work and justify your answer.
Answers
Answer:
Step-by-step explanation:
Module 01: Project Option 1
Instructions
Scientific notation is a tool that is used frequently in science, including astronomy, chemistry, biology, and more. In this activity, imagine that you are a student intern at NASA and are researching information about travel within our solar system. You will complete a series of tasks using what you know about scientific notation and what you discover about our solar system to calculate distances that astronauts may use for their next trip to space.
Part 1
Using technology or other resources, research the average distance that each planet is from the Sun (in kilometers). Once you have found the distance, create a chart showing each planet's distance from the Sun. The Sun itself will not receive a label since it is your starting point. For example, Mercury is located an average of 57,909,000 km from the Sun, so on the chart, Mercury would be labeled with a distance of 57,909,000. Use the example of the chart below to help you get started:
Planet Distance from Sun (in Km) Distance in scientific notation
Mercury 57,909,000 5.7909 x 10^7
Venus 108,208,930 1.0820893 x 10^8
Earth 149,600,000 1.496 x 10^8
Mars 227,940,000 2.2794 x 10^8
Jupiter 778,547,200 7.785472 x 10^8
Saturn 1,433,449,370 1.433344937 x 10^9
Uranus 2,870,972,200 2.8709722 x 10^9
Neptune 4,503,443,661 4.503443661 x 10^9
Part 2
Convert each of the distances that you have recorded into scientific notation. List these on your chart for this assignment.
Part 3
Answer the following questions using the data you have found. Show your work on all questions as indicated.
A. If a spacecraft was parked on Venus and needed to make a flight to Jupiter, how far would it need to travel? Show your work and provide your answer in scientific notation.
If a spacecraft was parked on Venus and needed to make a flight to Jupiter, it would need to travel 670,338,270 km. The scientific notation for 670,338,270 is 6.70338270 x 10^8.
B. Mercury, Venus, and Earth are the three planets closest to the Sun. Would their combined distance from the Sun be greater or less than the distance from the sun to Neptune? Show your work and justify your answer.
With Mercury, Venus, and the Earth being combined into one distance from the sun, it is still less than the distance from sun to Neptune. The combined distance from the sun is 315,717,930 and Neptune's distance from the sun is 4,503,443,661.
C. If Earth was 10 times farther away from the Sun than it is now, which planet would it be closest to? Compare Earth's new distance to that planet. How far apart would they be in standard notation? How far apart in scientific notation? Show your work.
If Earth was 10 times farther away from the Sun than it is now it would be 1,496,000,000 km away and it would be closer to Saturn now because Saturn is 1,433,449,370. 1,496,000,000 − 1,433,449,370= 62,550,630. So Earth'snew distance to Saturn is 62,550,630. 62,550,630 in scientific notation is 6.2550630 x 10^7.
D. The space shuttle travels at about 28,000 km per hour. Using that information, estimate how many hours it will take the shuttle to reach Saturn from Earth. Show your work. Convert your answer into scientific notation if necessary.
So, the first step is to work out the distance. Earth is 149,600,000 km and Saturn is 1,433,449,370 km. So, next is to subtract to find out the distance between eachother. You get 1,283,849,370. The second step is to divide 1,283,849,370 by 28,000 to see how many hours it will take for the shuttle to reach Saturn. The answer is 45,851 hours.
Given:
Mercury, Venus, and Earth are the three planets closest to the sun.
To Find:
would the combined distance from the sun be greater or less than the distance from the sun to Neptune?
Solution:
The individual distance of the planets mentioned Mercury, Venus and Earth from the sun are as follows:
sun to mercury- 53.032million km
sun to venus- 107.6 million km
sun to earth- 147.1 million km
So, the total distance of mercury venus earth from the sun will be,
Total distance=(53.032+107.6+147.1)million km
=307.732km.
Now the distance of the planet Neptune from the sun is 4.4748 billion km which when converted to million is 4474.8 million km.
The combined distance of mercury venus earth from the sun is 307.732 which is less than the distance of Neptune from the sun.
Hence, No, the combined distance of planets Mercury, Venus and Earth are less than the distance of Sun to Neptune.