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Question
Satellites orbiting the earth have finite life and sometimes debris of satellites fall to the earth. This is because ______.
Options
the solar cells and batteries in satellites run out.
the laws of gravitation predict a trajectory spiralling inwards.
of viscous forces causing the speed of satellite and hence height to gradually decrease.
of collisions with other satellites.
Solution
Satellites orbiting the earth have finite life and sometimes debris of satellites fall to the earth. This is because of viscous forces causing the speed of satellite and hence height to gradually decrease.
Explanation:
As the total energy of the earth satellite bounded system is negative `((-GM)/(2a))`. where a is the radius of the satellite and M is mass of the earth.
Due to the viscous force acting on the satellite, energy decreases continuously and the radius of the orbit or height decreases gradually.
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