8.1 Solar system; stability of orbital motions; satellites

8.1 Solar system; stability of orbital motions; satellites

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Question 8

The Sun lies at the centre of our solar system.

a.

State the type of astronomical object that the Sun is.

[1]

b.

Name the galaxy to which our solar system belongs.

[1]

c.

Table 1 gives information about some of the moons in our solar system.

Moon	Radius in kilometres
Titan	$2575$
Europa	$1560$
Deimos	$6$

What is a moon?

[1]

d.

A student researched the radius of some other objects in the solar system:

Radius of dwarf planet Ceres = $km470\text{ km}$
Radius of planet Mercury = $km2440\text{ km}$

The student made the following conclusions:

Conclusion 1: Dwarf planets are always larger than moons.
Conclusion 2: Planets are always larger than moons.

Give one reason why each of the student's conclusions is wrong. Use the data given above and in Table 1.

[2]