Question

A Saturn year is 29.5 times the earth year. How far is the Saturn from the sun if the earth is 1.50 ×10⁸ km away from the sun?

Answer 1

Distance of the Earth from the Sun, r_e = 1.5 × 10⁸ km = 1.5 × 10¹¹ m

Time period of the Earth = T_e

Time period of Saturn, T_s = 29. 5 T_e

Distance of Saturn from the Sun = r_s

From Kepler’s third law of planetary motion, we have

For Saturn and Sun, we can write

Hence, the distance between Saturn and the Sun is 1.43x10¹²m.