The orbiting space shuttle moves around Earth well above 99 percentof the atmosphere, yet it still accumulates an electric charge onits skin, due, in part, to the loss of electrons caused by thephotoelectric effect with sunlight. Suppose the skin of the shuttleis coated with Ni, which has a relatively large work functionφ = 4.87eV at the temperatures encountered in orbit.
(a) What is the maximum wavelength in the solar spectrum that canresult in the emission of photoelectrons from the shuttle'sskin?
(b) What is the maximum fraction of the total power falling on theshuttle that could potentially produce electrons?