Question

Ceres is an asteroid with a mass of 8.7 x 10^20 kg that is 2.767 AU from the Sun. How many kilometers away is it from the Sun?

Answer 1

Answer:

Ceres is $4.15\times10^{8}$ km away from sun.

Step-by-step explanation:

We know that,

1 AU =$1.50\times10^{8}$ Km

So, 2.767 AU in kilometers will be :

Applying the conversion of units:

$2767\times(1.50\times10^{8})$

= 415050000 km.

In exponential form we can re write this as :

$4.15\times10^{8}$ kilometer.

Thus, Ceres is $4.15\times10^{8}$ kilometers away from the sun.

Answer 2

In this problem the mass of the asteroid is completely irrelevant. To solve this we are going to take advantage of the fact the 1AU=149,598,000 kilometers, so we can establish a conversion factor as follows:
$2.767AU* \frac{149598000km}{AU} =413937666$

We can conclude that the asteroid is 413,937,666 kilometers away from the sun, or in scientific notation 4.139376660·$10^8$ kilometers away form the sun.