Which Planet Is The Closest To Earth?
It’s Not As Simple As Looking At the Chart on the Wall
“solar system” by Philippe Put is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The question of ‘Which planet is the closest to Earth’ is one most everyone can answer. It is obviously Venus, isn’t it? However, that is not the case. If you come to your conclusion based on the posters you saw in your science classroom, then you are wrong. The planets are not sitting idle in a line. They are spheres moving through space in elliptical orbits. So, it is not a question of which planet is the closest. It is a question of which is closest for the most amount of time.
Due to its small orbit, Mercury is the closest to Earth. If you observe the planets, you will see that Mercury never gets too far away. Mercury is the closest planet to everything that orbits the Sun for the same reason it is closest to the Earth.
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