The image shows Earth’s orbit around the Sun. An illustration with a circle representing the sun and a smaller circle representing a planet. The sun is at a focus of a draw ellipse that the planet is on. There are lines drawn radially out from the Sun to the elliptical path of the planet. The planet is at the part of the ellipse that is closest to the sun. The position of the planet is labeled W and the position opposite the planet is labeled X.
Which describes the changes in Earth’s motion?

The speed increases from W to X because a component of the gravitational force acts in the direction opposite to the velocity.
The speed increases from W to X because a component of the gravitational force acts in the direction of the velocity.
The speed increases from X to W because a component of the gravitational force acts in the direction opposite to the velocity.
The speed increases from X to W because a component of the gravitational force acts in the direction of the velocity.

Your starship, the aimless wanderer, lands on the mysterious planet mongo. as chief scientist-engineer, you make the following measurements: a 2.50-kg stone thrown upward from the ground at 14.0 m/s returns to the ground in 5.70 s ; the circumference of mongo at the equator is 2.20×10^5 km ; and there is no appreciable atmosphere on mongo. (a) the starship commander, captain confusion, asks for the following information: what is the mass of mongo? (b) if the aimless wanderer goes into a circular orbit 2.20×10^4 km above the surface of mongo, how many hours will it take the ship to complete one orbit? (c) an unmanned spacecraft is in a circular orbit around the moon, observing the lunar surface from an altitude of 44.0 km . to the dismay of scientists on earth, an electrical fault causes an on-board thruster to fire, decreasing the speed of the spacecraft by 23.0 m/s . if nothing is done to correct its orbit, with what speed (in km/h) will the spacecraft crash into the lunar surface?