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What is the distance between Venus and Mercury?
Venus and Mercury are the two planets that orbit closest to the Sun. Mercury orbits at an average distance of 58 million km, while Venus orbits at a distance of 108 million km.
Is Mercury ever closer to Earth than Venus?
Although Venus is the planet that comes closest to Earth as it sweeps by on its orbit, Mercury stays the closest to Earth the longest, according to a commentary published Tuesday (March 12) in the magazine Physics Today.
What is the largest distance between Earth and Venus?
The closest possible opposition distance between Earth and Venus is 38 million kilometers. This is the closest that any planet comes to Earth. The farthest that Venus ever gets from Earth is 261 million km. The means that the Venus distance from Earth can vary by an incredible 223 million km.
What process causes Venus to be so hot?
Venus is so hot because it is surrounded by a very thick atmosphere which is about 100 times more massive than our atmosphere here on Earth. As sunlight passes through the atmosphere, it heats up the surface of Venus. The heat becomes trapped and builds up to extremely high temperatures.
How is the distance between Earth and Venus calculated?
To calculate the average distance between two planets, The Planets and other websites assume the orbits are coplanar and subtract the average radius of the inner orbit, r1, from the average radius of the outer orbit, r2. The distance between Earth (1 astronomical unit from the Sun) and Venus (0.72 AU) comes out to 0.28 AU.
Why is Mercury closer to the Earth than Venus?
By using a more accurate method for estimating the average distance between two orbiting bodies, we find that this distance is proportional to the relative radius of the inner orbit. In other words, Mercury is closer to Earth, on average, than Venus is because it orbits the Sun more closely.
How big is the distance between Earth and Mercury?
As an example, the distance between the planet Mercury and Earth can range from 77 million km at the closest point, to as far as 222 million km at the farthest. There is a huge amount of different in the distances between the planets depending on their position on their orbit path.
What is the average distance between the planets?
There is a huge amount of different in the distances between the planets depending on their position on their orbit path. The table below shows the eight planets and the average distance between them. The AU column is the distance in astronomical units. 1 AU is the distance from the Sun to Earth, which is 149,600,000 km.