[Physics] the weight of the Philae lander on the Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet compared to earth

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We know the payload mass of the Philae lander was 21kg.

We know the mass of the Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet is roughly 1 x 10^13kg.

We know the mass of Earth is roughly 5.9×10^24kg.

I've heard one estimate of the weight of the lander as 100 earth grams. Looking at the ratios (1/(1 x 10^11)) that doesn't seem right to me.

My question is: What is the weight of the Philae lander on the Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet compared to earth? (And does it matter that the comet is Duck shaped? ie does the weight change depending on where on the comet it is?)

Best Answer

As you rightly pointed out, the fact that 67P is oddly-shaped should alter its gravitational attraction on various parts of the comet.

That said, if we were to go by Wikipedia in a rather off-hand manner, we find that the lander is $100 kg$ (as @fibonatic rightly pointed out) and 67P has an acceleration due to gravity of $\textbf{g'} = 10^{-3} m/s^2$. Its weight $W$ would therefore be simply a calculation of $W = m\,\textbf{g'}$, giving us $W = \frac{10^2}{10^3} kg = 0.1 kg$ or $100 \,\,\verb+earth+\, g$.

[P.S. I will update this answer with better sources than Wikipedia as soon as I find time.]

Edit 1: This ESA webpage seems to confirm the figures.

Edit 2: Calculating $\textbf{g'}$

I made some calculations: Using the formula $\textbf{F} = M\,\textbf{g'} = \frac{GmM}{r^2} \Rightarrow \textbf{g'} = \frac{GM}{r^2}$ we can calculate the acceleration due to gravity on 67P (m being the comet's mass and M that of our lander). The above ESA page gives us this figure:

ESA

Seeing how the dimensions vary wildly, I decided to consider a mean of, say, 3.5km as diameter and 1.75km as $r$. 67P's mass is, of course, $10^{13}\,kg$ which gives us, $$ \textbf{g'} = \frac{6.67 \times 10^{-11} \times 10^{13}}{\left( 1.75 \times 10^3 \right)^2} \approx 10^{-3} ms^{-2} $$ A more precise answer, is, of course, $0.217 \times 10^{-3} ms^{-2}$ but since we have been very liberal in our assumptions of mass and radius, I think we ought to simply consider the order of magnitude, $10^{-3} ms^{-2}$. This pdf file contains some simulation data that agrees with our result.