Question

based on the chart, select the planet that would be most impacted by the suns gravitational force.
regular planets
name of planet\taverage distance from sun\tnumber of known moons
mercury\t57,900,000 km (36,000,000 miles)\tnone
venus\t108,160,000 km (67,000,000 miles)\tnone
earth\t149,600,000 km (92,960,000 miles)\t1
mars\t227,936,640 km (141,700,000 miles)\t2
○ mercury
○ earth
○ mars
○ venus

Explanation:

The gravitational force between two objects is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers (Newton's law of universal gravitation: \( F = G\frac{m_1m_2}{r^2} \), where \( r \) is the distance). A smaller distance from the Sun means a stronger gravitational impact. Among the planets, Mercury has the smallest average distance from the Sun (57,900,000 km), so it is most impacted by the Sun’s gravitational force.

Answer:

Mercury