The Stardust spacecraft was designed to visit a comet and bring samples of its m

Question

The Stardust spacecraft was designed to visit a comet and bring samples of its material back to the earth. The craft is 1.7 m across and has a mass of 385kg . In January 2004, from a distance of 237km , it took the photograph of the nucleus of comet Wild2, shown in the figure below.(Figure 1) The distance across this nucleus is 5 km, and we can model it as an approximate sphere. Since astronomers think that comets have a composition similar to that of Pluto, we can assume a density the same as Pluto's, which is 2.1 g/cm3. The samples taken will be returned to earth on Jan. 15, 2006

part a: What gravitational force did the comet exert on the spacecraft when it took the photo in the figure?

partb: Compare this force with the force that the earth's gravity exerted on it when the spacecraft was on the launch pad.?

a)F>mg    

b)F<mg    

c)F%u2248mg

Explanation / Answer

2.7 x 10^-10N

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