🧩 Adventure 15 – Activity 1

The Sun Controls the Solar System

In this activity, you will calculate one powerful quantity, GM_sun, and then use it to compute orbital speed, orbit size, and orbital period for Mercury, Earth, and Neptune. Enter only numerical answers in the boxes below.

🔹 Part I — Compute GM of the Sun

Newton’s gravitational constant:

G = 6.67 × 10^-11 N m² / kg²

Mass of the Sun:

M_sun = 2 × 10^30 kg

Task: Compute GM_sun = G × M_sun

GM_sun = m³/s²

📊 Table 1 — Orbital Velocity and Period for 3 Planets

No decimals unless the number is less than 1.

Planet	Distance from Sun r (m)	Orbital Velocity v (m/s)	Orbit Size 2πr (m)	Period T (s)	Period (years)
Mercury	5.79 × 10^10
Earth	1.496 × 10^11
Neptune	4.495 × 10^12

Useful Formulas

v = sqrt(GM / r)

Orbit size = 2πr

T = (2πr) / v

years = seconds / 31,557,600