Question

a spacecraft is launched from earth toward the moon. where will the spacecraft be when the gravitational forces acting on it are equal? closer to earth than to the moon because the moon has greater mass than earth closer to the moon than to earth because the moon has greater mass than earth closer to earth than to the moon because earth has greater mass than the moon closer to the moon than to earth because earth has greater mass than the moon

Explanation:

The gravitational force between two objects is given by Newton's law of universal gravitation $F = G\frac{Mm}{r^{2}}$, where $G$ is the gravitational - constant, $M$ and $m$ are the masses of the two objects, and $r$ is the distance between them. Earth has a much greater mass than the moon. For the gravitational forces exerted by Earth and the moon on the spacecraft to be equal, since the gravitational force is directly proportional to the mass of the attracting body and inversely proportional to the square of the distance, the spacecraft must be closer to the less - massive body (the moon) because Earth's mass is larger.

Answer:

closer to the moon than to Earth because Earth has greater mass than the moon