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andreea_a
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Homework Statement
Hello! Suppose a meteor was approaching the Earth along a distance that passes through the Earth's center.I have a space station that moves around the Earth in a circular orbit (radius R)The meteor hit the space station and becomes incorporated.After the impact the space station moves in an elliptical orbit so that the minimum distance relative to the center of the Earth is R/2. Now my question is:what was the speed of this meteor before hitting the space station?
I know M=Earth's mass,m1 = meteor's mass,m2 = space station's mass and K=gravitational constant.
The Attempt at a Solution
Momentum is conserved,right?So I wrote m1 v1 + m2 v2 = (m1+m2) v where v = speed of the meteor after the impact. I should get from here v1. v2 should be √KM/R(circular orbit) and v = √KM(2/r-1/a)
Substituting I get m1 v1 + m2 √KM/R=(m1+m2)√KM(2/r-1/a)
But can I write in another way the expression for the speed after the impact?Should I replace r by R/2 (velocity at perihelion)?
The final answer should be v = (m1+m2)/m1 √2*K*M/R*(3*m2^2 / 2*(m1+m2)^2 -1 )
Thanks in advance!
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