People often think Venus is our closest planet. However, according to a new study on average distances over time Mercury actually comes closer.
Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley have developed a computer simulation of planets’ movements over 10,000 years and found that Mercury tends to orbit closer than any other planet to Earth on average.
Mercury
About twice annually, Mercury appears 23 degrees or so from the sun in the evening sky – this event is known as its greatest elongation west or, sometimes east. Mercury can also be seen directly behind it during solar eclipses such as August 21, 2016.
Scientists have only conducted limited research of Venus due to its close proximity to the Sun. Spacecraft have difficulty with surviving its hot temperatures, while strong gravity accelerates them at incredible rates, making delicate maneuvers hard to achieve.
Mercury’s surface is covered in scarps, or cliffs, that extend for hundreds of miles and reach heights up to one mile high. While they likely resulted from intense tectonic activity, fault lines could still be opening as the planet cools and contracts. Although Mercury lacks a substantial atmosphere, an ultrathin exosphere exists that contains atoms blown off its surface by solar wind and micrometeoroid impacts which quickly escape into space creating a tail of particles which reflect light back onto itself from which light from the sun can reflect off of them back onto itself.
In 2012, the MESSENGER mission discovered traces of water ice in Mercury’s north pole craters. These tiny droplets may have come from comets or more likely by water vapor which outgassed and condensed before freezing in cold regions of its interior – possibly leading to cometary impacts or sublimating and freezing into frozen pockets in Mercury’s interior – although scientists suspect similar pockets exist elsewhere on the planet as well.
Mercury is one of the fastest planets in our solar system and, due to its fast orbital speed, one of our closest neighbors; although its position can often fluctuate. On average, it comes closer to Earth than any other planet due to a mathematical formula called point-circle method (PCM), which assumes two orbits are circular, concentric, and coplanar before calculating how far apart their paths lie on an elliptical trajectory – making PCM suitable for all pairs with similar orbital periods such as two planets (including other inner ones). This works even between planets with similar orbital periods than each other planet in our Solar system!
Venus
Venus, the second planet from the Sun, is often considered Earth’s twin. Like Earth, Venus features seas, mountains and trees — as well as an intense greenhouse effect that heats it six times hotter than anywhere on our own planet – hence giving it its signature appearance of glowing furnace-like skies.
On a clear night after sunset, Venus can be seen shining brightly from the west after sunset. Its dazzling light can easily outshone every star or satellite in the sky; even at its most distant point two days before reaching greatest elongation (which occurs roughly two days prior). At that time, its magnitude-4.4 light would illuminate 51% of its surface area at this stage.
By using a telescope, one can reveal details about Venus’s cloud cover. As seen from the Shafran Planetarium at the Museum, Venus is in gibbous phase with roughly half its disk visible; over the coming months as Venus moves closer to Earth it will change into crescent phase and gradually appear smaller in evening sky views.
Although scientists haven’t explored Venus directly yet, observations with radar have revealed that its surface has flat volcanic plains and two higher landmasses (continents) featuring mountains, valleys and volcano-like structures. Venus also stands out in that it lacks moons compared to most planets within our solar system; scientists still don’t fully understand why some have them while others don’t.
You may be lucky enough to view Venus transit the Sun with the aid of a telescope; this occurs when it passes directly in front of it as seen from Earth and Venus is expected to make another transit in 2025.
Mars
Mars, our fourth planet from the Sun and located within our Solar System’s Orion-Cygnus Arm of the Milky Way, features an iron core surrounded by nickel, sulphur and oxygen mantles; its surface covers rocks, dust and sand; while carbon dioxide freezes onto its polar ice caps to form frozen carbon dioxide caps. In addition, there are canyons, volcanoes, craters and rifts located throughout its terrain.
If you were standing on Mars, Earth would appear 75 times larger. Phobos and Deimos are two moons belonging to Mars that orbit it; Phobos is heavily cratered and may collide with or break away from it at some point, potentially creating a dusty ring around its planet-dweller neighbour. Deimos orbits much further from Mars than Phobos does – making it look more like an orbital satellite than part of its natural terrain.
On its closest approach in 2003, Mars came closer to Earth than it had in 60,000 years – when this stunning image from the Hubble Space Telescope was captured of this rusty planet by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Mars’ atmosphere is composed mostly of nitrogen and carbon monoxide with some water vapor present; two carbon dioxide polar ice caps dominate during northern summer seasons than southern winter ones.
Mars boasts a mean surface temperature of approximately 100 degrees Fahrenheit and has an extremely low density – which means it weighs less than Earth. Due to its elliptical orbit and tilted axis tilting slightly away from the Sun, certain parts of Mars receive more sunlight at certain times of year than others.
Mars can be seen with the naked eye with patience; its brightness varies according to its position in the sky at any given time and how dark it is. Online sky charts and planetarium programs such as Starry Night can assist with finding it, while more detailed charts may require custom software such as Starry Night for enhanced visualization. Currently Mars resides within Gemini constellation and rises around 4 AM; over the coming months however this will gradually move earlier.
Jupiter
Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun and largest planet of our Solar System, can easily be seen with naked eyes or binoculars. At magnitude -2.8 it shines as one of the brightest objects in the night sky; its Great Red Spot storm system measures more than 1,300 times larger across than Earth. Due to Jupiter’s rapid rotation strong jet streams form around clouds creating dark belts and bright zones over long stretches of time while often times they exhibit vivid hues due to sulfur and phosphorus-containing gases rising up from warmer interior regions causing strong jet streams separating dark belts from dark belts and bright zones; as well as creating strong jet streams separating dark belts and bright zones over long stretches of time due to rapid rotation- created jet streams created strong jet streams create strong jet streams separating dark belts and bright zones from dark belts and bright zones creating dark belts and bright zones on long stretches as well as vivid colored patches on long stretches creating strong jet streams separating dark belts and bright zones from each other creating strong jet streams creating long distance from Jupiter itself due to rapid rotation caused by strong jet streams coming off its interior creating strong jet streams creating strong jet streams creating strong jet streams and creating strong jet streams which separate them into dark belts and bright zones over long stretches of time creating strong jet stream separation create long distance and bright zones from each other as its rapid rotation creating jet streams create strong jet streams separated into dark belts separated from bright zones caused by rapid rotation from separating clouds over long stretches due to long stretchs as its rapid rotation creating long distance by long stretches while long enough. Additionally separating clouds separating into dark belts over long stretches while producing sulfur/phosphorus gas production from rising through it warm core created strong jet streams creating long distance separation thus creating dark belts/ bright zones separation with vivid colored hues from within this fast rotation creating jet streams separating dark belts/ bright zones creating long periods causing separations separation creating long enough separating clouds creating strong jet streams creating long enough long enough for long enough as long enough stretches to separate strong jet streams long stretches which separate long enough zones thus producing bright zones and creating jet streams from long enough times caused long enough before long enough jet streams create dark belts/zones thus leaving enough time spotted clouds also often featuring vibrant color from inside warm areas allowing gas emissions from its rotation create strong jet streams which cause clouds to separate dark/ bright zones between long stretches thus producing rich inf stretches to separate clouds to start to divide/light zones or zones along their own to make long enough outing out to differentiated separation to be divided, by long enough that long enough time and bright zones which can form/or light stretches separated to separate long enough as soon that long enough to create bright zones to long enough creating long enough over long enough time creating strong jet streams separated long enough to give contrast between dark/b Zones by long enough that would otherwise create dark belts/ separating which separate long enough (seeping out over long separating long enough that there enough for them by long enough separation outs that long enough, due to separatesing out too long and even out too often seeing cloud formation with vivid colored due to strong enough!!). cloud patches which will eventually do…………………….and bright zones as they often created from long enough without producing bright zones separating clouds to long….) then later on long stretches then soon for long enough or bright zones etc). etc…s from long enough or just too late, due to long enough in long……. stretches before eventually appear by strong jet streams
Galileo Galilei’s observations of Jupiter’s moons revolutionized humanity’s understanding of the Universe during the early 1600s. Jupiter is notable for its immense magnetic field that traps charged particles from the Sun and generates deadly radiation; spacecraft flying near Jupiter should always carry radiation shielding to avoid radiation poisoning.
Jupiter differs from Mercury and Venus by spending more time close to the Sun than farther away, according to engineers from NASA and Los Alamos National Observatory who used a computer model to identify which planet closest to Earth over a 10,000 year period; Mercury came closer due to orbiting closer around Sun.
At the beginning of September, Jupiter reached opposition (its closest and brightest orbital position relative to Earth for that year) in Pisces for only the second time since 2001. After 12 years it returned directly into Taurus – crossing back over two degrees SSE of Hamal ( Ari or Alpha Arietis mag +2.0) before reaching its Western stationary point on January 1.
Due to this phenomenon, Jupiter rises earlier and remains visible for much of dawn twilight until mid-October when it starts fading out at dusk; once visible again it won’t be until it reaches its Northern stationary point in June 2024 shortly before sunrise.