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Chapter 4: Problem 8

At what configuration (for example, superior conjunction, greatest eastern elongation, and so on) would it be best to observe Mercury or Venus with an Earth-based telescope? At what configuration would it be best to observe Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn? Explain your answers.

Short Answer

Expert verified
Mercury and Venus are best observed at their greatest elongation. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are best observed at opposition.

Step by step solution

01

Understand configurations of planets

The configurations are specific relative positions of planets in relation to the Sun as seen from Earth. Major configurations include: superior conjunction (when a planet is on the same side of the Sun as the Earth, but far from it), greatest elongation (when an inner planet is as far from the Sun as it gets from the perspective of Earth), and opposition (when a planet is on the opposite side of the sky to the Sun - it rises when the Sun sets and sets when the Sun rises).
02

Best configuration for observing Mercury or Venus

Mercury and Venus, being closer to the Sun than Earth, are best observed during their greatest elongations. During this time, the planet is as far as it gets from the Sun in the sky, and is best visible just after sunset or just before sunrise. We cannot see these planets at superior conjunction because they are lost in the Sun's glare.
03

Best configuration for observing Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, being further from the Sun than Earth, are best observed at opposition. They are at their closest to Earth and are fully illuminated by the Sun. Hence, they appear brighter and larger in the sky, which makes them easier to view with an Earth-based telescope.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

(a) Search the World Wide Web for information about Kepler. Before he realized that the planets move on elliptical paths, what other models of planetary motion did he consider? What was Kepler's idea of "the music of the spheres"? (b) Search the World Wide Web for information about Galileo. What were his contributions to physics? Which of Galileo's new ideas were later used by Newton to construct his laws of motion? (c) Search the World Wide Web for information about Newton. What were some of the contributions that he made to physics other than developing his laws of motion? What contributions did he make to mathematics?

Suppose that you traveled to a planet with 4 times the mass and 4 times the diameter of the Earth. Would you weigh more or less on that planet than on Earth? By what factor?

Which planets can never be seen at opposition? Which planets can never be seen at inferior conjunction? Explain your answers.

What are the foci of an ellipse? If the Sun is at one focus of a planet's orbit, what is at the other focus?

Imagine a planet like the Earth orbiting a star with 4 times the mass of the Sun. If the semimajor axis of the planet's orbit is \(1 \mathrm{AU}\), what would be the planet's sidereal period? (Hint: Use Newton's form of Kepler's third law. Compared with the case of the Earth orbiting the Sun, by what factor has the quantity \(m_{1}+m_{2}\) changed? Has \(a\) changed? By what factor must \(P^{2}\) change?)
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