Randall D. Knight — Newton's Theory of Gravity: Problem 22

A binary star system has two stars, each with the same mass as our sun, separated by \(1.0 \times 10^{12} \text{ m}\). A comet is very far away and essentially at rest. Slowly but surely, gravity pulls the comet toward the stars. Suppose the comet travels along a trajectory that passes through the midpoint between the two stars. What is the comet’s speed at the midpoint?