Question

A planet orbits a start with the path shown below.

Answer 1

PART a)

As we know that gravitational potential energy is given by the formula

$U = -\frac{Gm_1m_2}{r}$

here we can see that gravitational potential energy inversely varies with the distance

so here when distance from the sun is minimum then magnitude of gravitational potential energy is maximum while since it is given with negative sign so its overall value is minimum at that position

So gravitational potential energy is minimum at the nearest point and maximum at the farthest point

PART b)

Since we know that sum of kinetic energy and potential energy is constant here

so the points of minimum potential energy is the point where kinetic energy is maximum which means speed is maximum

So here speed is maximum at the nearest point

Part C)

since gravitational potential energy inversely varies with distance so it's graph will be like hyperbolic graph with distance