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Explorations an Introduction to Astronomy Thomas T. Arny | ||||||||
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Chapter
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Chapter 15, Figure 25
Figure
15.25
Finding the
mass of the Milkyway. Represent the entire Milkyway by a single mass, M, around
which the Sun (mass m) orbits at a distance a and with an orbital period P.
Apply the modified form of Kepler's third law to calculate M + m. Because
the Sun's mass is so tiny, it can be ignored and we can set M _ a3/P 2.
