The Orbit of Hale-Bopp Comet, Discovered in 1995, Is an Ellipse

question 121

Multiple Choice

The orbit of Hale-Bopp comet, discovered in 1995, is an ellipse with eccentricity $0.995$ and one focus at the Sun. The length of its major axis is $366.5 \mathrm { AU }$ . [An astronomical unit (AU) is the mean distance between Earth and the Sun, about 93 million miles.] Find the maximum distance from the comet to the Sun. (The perihelion distance from a planet to the Sun is $a ( 1 - e )$ and the aphelion distance is $a ( 1 + e )$ .) Find the answer in $\mathrm { AU }$ and round to the nearest hundredth.

• A) \(372.58 \mathrm { AU }\)
• B) \(370.58 \mathrm { AU }\)
• C) \(365.58 \mathrm { AU }\)
• D) \(368.58 \mathrm { AU }\)
• E) \(374.58 \mathrm { AU }\)

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