Your mission is to track incoming meteors to predict whether or not they will strike Earth. Since Earth has a circular cross section, you decide to set up a coordinate system with its origin at Earth's center. The equation of Earth's surface is x² + y² = 40.68, where x and y are distances in thousands of kilometers. You observe a meteor moving along a path from left to right whose equation is 240/121 (y - 11)² - x² = 60 , where y ≤ 5.5. What conic section does the path of the meteor travel?
