An asteroid approaches Jupiter and is slung into a new trajectory around across the solar system. If it's eccentricity is greater than 1, which statement might be true?
*
1 point
The asteroid slows down as it passes around Jupiter.
The asteroid continues out of the solar system, never to return.
The asteroid adopts an unusual orbit around the sun, such as an egg shape.
The asteroid falls into an regular orbit around Jupiter instead of the sun.
If the eccentricity of the asteroid's new trajectory is greater than 1, it means that the orbit is highly elongated and highly elliptical, deviating significantly from a circular shape. In this case, the correct statement would be: The asteroid continues out of the solar system, never to return.
If the eccentricity of an asteroid's new trajectory around the solar system is greater than 1, the statement that might be true is:
The asteroid continues out of the solar system, never to return.
When the eccentricity of an orbit is greater than 1, it indicates that the orbit is a hyperbolic orbit. In this case, the asteroid's trajectory takes it on a path that moves away from the Sun and out of the solar system indefinitely. It will not fall into a regular orbit around any celestial body.
In this scenario, when an asteroid approaches Jupiter and is slung into a new trajectory with an eccentricity greater than 1, the statement that might be true is:
- The asteroid continues out of the solar system, never to return.
To understand why this statement may be true, we should first understand what eccentricity measures in relation to an object's orbit. In celestial mechanics, eccentricity is a parameter that describes the shape of an orbit. It ranges from 0 to 1, with 0 representing a perfectly circular orbit and 1 representing a highly elongated orbit.
When the eccentricity of an orbit exceeds 1, the orbit becomes hyperbolic. A hyperbolic orbit indicates that the object's trajectory is open and unbound, meaning it will not be captured into a regular orbit around a celestial body such as the sun or Jupiter. Instead, the object will pass by the planet and continue moving away from the solar system, never to return.
Therefore, if an asteroid's eccentricity is greater than 1 after being slung by Jupiter, it suggests that the asteroid will continue on a trajectory that takes it out of the solar system, making the statement "The asteroid continues out of the solar system, never to return" likely true.