The Planet Mercury Travels in an Elliptical Orbit with Eccentricity $0.703$

question 56

Multiple Choice

The planet Mercury travels in an elliptical orbit with eccentricity $0.703$ . Its minimum distance from the Sun is $8 \times 10 ^ { 7 } \mathrm {~km}$ . If the perihelion distance from a planet to the Sun is $a ( 1 - e )$ and the aphelion distance is $a ( 1 + e )$ , find the maximum distance (in km) from Mercury to the Sun.

• A) \(45.9 \times 10 ^ { 7 } \mathrm {~km}\)
• B) \(48.0 \times 10 ^ { 7 } \mathrm {~km}\)
• C) \(0.5 \times 10 ^ { 7 } \mathrm {~km}\)
• D) \(26.9 \times 10 ^ { 7 } \mathrm {~km}\)
• E) \(50.0 \times 10 ^ { 7 } \mathrm {~km}\)

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