Science and Space

What is the closest planet to earth?

2 answer(s)
Answer # 1 #

For practical purposes, most people consider Venus to be Earth's closest planetary neighbor since it comes closer to us than any other planet. At its nearest approach, Venus is about 38 million kilometers away, which is much closer than Mars ever gets. You can often see Venus shining brightly in the morning or evening sky - it's the third brightest object after the Sun and Moon. The planets' orbits are constantly changing their positions, so the "closest planet" actually varies throughout the year. But if you're asking which planet can get closest to Earth, that's definitely Venus!

[7 Day]
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Answer # 2 #

This is actually a trickier question than it seems! While Venus comes closest to Earth at its nearest approach, if you calculate the average distance over time, Mercury is actually closest to Earth most of the time! Here's why:

  • Venus gets within about 38 million km at closest approach
  • But it also swings far away - up to 261 million km
  • Mercury never gets as close (about 77 million km minimum)
  • But it never goes farther than 222 million km either

When you average the distances over time, Mercury comes out as our closest planetary neighbor. This counterintuitive fact was published in Physics Today in 2019 - it's all about orbital dynamics and how we measure "closest!"

[8 Day]
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