Question

An astronomer says she has detected a planet with an orbital period of 3 years in...

An astronomer says she has detected a planet with an orbital period of 3 years in orbit around a star that is 3 times the mass of the Sun. What is the orbital radius for this planet (in AU)? (1 mark)

b) Soon after this announcement, another astronomer says he has found a planet in the same system that has a period of 2 years and an orbital radius of 2 AU. Do you believe his figures? (1 mark)

c) Suppose we observe a binary star with components of 2MSun and 3MSun. If the stars are separated by 100 AU what is their orbital period (in years)? (1 mark)

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