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nick227
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Homework Statement
I have this problem for homework and I don't know how to even start. Can someone help? Thanks in advance.A neat and exploitive use of the sun would be to put a space probe into a solar elliptical orbit from the Earth on one side of the sun headed towards a rendezvous with Venus on the other side. Since Venus is a moving object, it would actually meet the space probe at the other end of the ellipse. So, employing Kepler's third law determine how many days are required for the space probe to travel to Venus. Consider both Venus and the Earth to have circular orbits. Also use this information:
Period(yr) Radius(AU) Eccentricity
Venus .615 .723 .007
Earth 1.000 1.000 .017
Homework Equations
t^2=((4pi^2)/(GM))a^3
t =period
G=universal gravity
M=mass of sun...?
a=semimajor axis or radius for a circle
The Attempt at a Solution
i don't really know how to start this. can anyone get me started?