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If you necessitate an uranologist which satellite is closest to Earth , you ’d probably expect to get a single , simple answer in reply . And if you were pay attention at school , you ’d credibly be reasonably positive you could guess which one of the seven other planets in oursolar systemit is .
So what is the closest major planet to us ? Turns out there is n’t just one right resolution — there are technically three , depending on how you ’ve phrased the question and when you ’ve inquire it .
Contrary to multiple belief, more than one planet can claim to be Earth’s closest neighbor.
The best way to excuse why this is so disputative is to go through the unlike possible questions and do them , one at a time .
Which planet gets closest to Earth?
The response to this particular head is straightforward — Venus . At its close-fitting proximity to Earth , the hellish planet is onlyaround 24 million miles ( 38 million kilometers ) awayfrom our planet , and no other major planet suffer close to us .
Using this logic , our next near neighbour isMars , which can get towithin 34 million mile ( 54.7 million klick ) of our planet , followed byMercury , which isaround 48 million naut mi ( 77.2 million kilometer ) from Earthat its close point to us .
Related : How many times has Earth orbited the Lord’s Day ?
Contrary to multiple belief, more than one planet can claim to be Earth’s closest neighbor.
However , we ’re very seldom near our closest detail to any of these major planet , and all three of them ( as well as Earth ) are constantly orbitingthe sunat different speeds , mean the aloofness between our blue marble and each of them are perpetually exchange over metre . As a outcome , most astronomer do not find this answer very satisfying .
Which planet is closest to Earth right now?
For this question , the answer can be either Mercury , Venus or Mars , depending on where each major planet is on its orbital path compared to Earth .
For example , if Venus and Mercury are located near their utmost points from Earth on the other side of the sun and Mars is near its closest point to Earth , then Mars would be the closest planet to us at that pointedness . But if Mars is at its farthermost power point from Earth , and Mercury and Venus are near their closest dot , then Venus would be the closest planet to us .
But the response to this motion changes all the prison term , which also does n’t make it a very full way of determining our closest neighbor .
Which of these planets is closest to Earth at this moment?
For example , when this clause was written ( January 2024 ) , the closest planet to Earth was Mercury . But in around eight month , Venus will be the closest planet to us , and in another two months or so , Mars will have outdo Venus as our closest neighbour . However , less than a month later Venus will have writhe back the claim .
you may keep track of this yourself usingthis simulatorfrom TheSkyLive.com .
Which planet is closest to Earth on average?
This is where thing get really interesting .
If you look online for a inclination of planets ' average distance from Earth , you will get results say that Venus is much closer to Earth on average than Mercury or Mars . For deterrent example , ThePlanets.orglists Venus ' ordinary space to Earth as around 25.7 million miles ( 41.4 million klick ) , compared with 57 million miles ( 91.7 million km ) for Mercury and 48.6 million geographical mile ( 78.3 million km ) for Mars .
Related : Why do the satellite in the solar scheme orbit on the same plane ?
Mercury, Venus and Mars each take turns being Earth’s closest neighbor.
But these lists are untimely because they are base on blemished Assumption of Mary , Tom Stockman , a enquiry and maturation engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico , told Live Science . To get these numbers , citizenry have just forecast the average distance between the radius of each planet ’s orbital length from the Sunday , he said . But this does not take into account the planets ' proportional positions to one another during their orbits — it only tells you how far asunder they orbit the sun on average , Stockman said .
Instead , the correct agency to ferment out the intermediate distances between planets is by using a point - circle method ( PCM ) , which bet an average of all the distances between each full stop on both orbit , Stockman order .
In 2019 , Stockman co - wrote an clause inPhysics Todaythat repoint out this basic error and share the true average distances between each of the planet based on a PCM model — which the authors named thewhirly - dirly corollaryafter an episode of the sketch " Rick and Morty . " This revealed that Venus in reality has an mediocre distance of 105.6 million miles ( 169.9 million km ) from Earth , while Mars is around 158.1 million miles ( 254.4 million klick ) aside on mean . However , Mercury is only around 96.6 million Swedish mile ( 155.5 million km ) from Earth on ordinary .
This simulation clip shows how the distances between Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars are constantly changing.
However , these averages still do n’t paint the whole delineation because they only represent distance and not meter . Therefore , Stockman and his colleagues run their simulations for 10,000 long time to see how long , on average , each major planet was closest to Earth . This revealed that Mars spent roughly 17 % of the time as Earth ’s closest neighbor and Venus spent roughly 36 % of the time holding the championship . But the winner was Mercury , which was close-fitting to Earth for roughly 47 % of the meter , making it our true closest neighbor on intermediate .
— What ’s the maximal number of planet that could orbit the sun ?
— What if Earth shared its orbit with another planet ?
— What does the edge of the solar system count like ?
Mercury is our closest companion because it is the closest to the sun and has the small orbit , which means it is more often on the same side of the Sunday as Earth , and even when it ’s not , it ’s never that far away . Meanwhile , Venus and Mars spend long period of time of time much farther aside from Earth .
For the same reason , it turns out that not only is Mercury our closest neighbour on average , but it is also the closest fair neighbor of all six other planets in oursolar system of rules , the whirly - dirly corollary revealed .
Before the whirly - dirly corollary , other stargazer had credibly already count on all this out , meaning it was n’t " entirely unknown , " Stockman said . " I guess most people that sleep together , like me at first , just handle this as a sport small fact to talk about at parties , " he added .
