Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Mars comes closer to Earth more than any other planet save Venus at its nearest—56 million km is the closest distance between Mars and Earth, whereas the closest Venus comes to Earth is 40 million km. Mars comes closest to Earth every other year, around the time of its opposition, when Earth is sweeping between the Sun and Mars. Extra-close ...
Mars's average distance from the Sun is roughly 230 million km (143 million mi), and its orbital period is 687 (Earth) days. The solar day (or sol) on Mars is only slightly longer than an Earth day: 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds. [185] A Martian year is equal to 1.8809 Earth years, or 1 year, 320 days, and 18.2 hours. [2]
The distance between Venus and Earth varies from about 42 million km (at inferior conjunction) to about 258 million km (at superior conjunction). The average period between successive conjunctions of one type is 584 days – one synodic period of Venus. Five synodic periods of Venus is almost exactly 13 sidereal Venus years and 8 Earth years ...
The orbits are ellipses, with foci F 1 and F 2 for Planet 1, and F 1 and F 3 for Planet 2. The Sun is at F 1.; The shaded areas A 1 and A 2 are equal, and are swept out in equal times by Planet 1's orbit.
Consequently, Venus transits only occur when an inferior conjunction takes place during some days of June or December, when the orbits of Venus and Earth cross a straight line with the Sun. [189] This results in Venus transiting above Earth in a sequence currently of 8 years, 105.5 years, 8 years and 121.5 years, forming cycles of 243 years.
Relatively early in its history, Mars lost its magnetic field, which allowed the solar wind to claw away most of its atmosphere; with that, much of the water sublimed into space.
Size comparison between Phobos, Deimos and the Moon (right) Deimos is a gray-colored body. Like most bodies of its size, Deimos is highly non-spherical with triaxial dimensions of 16.1 km × 11.8 km × 10.2 km (10.0 mi × 7.3 mi × 6.3 mi), corresponding to a mean diameter of 12.5 km (7.8 mi) which makes it about 57% the size of Phobos. [7]
At more than 4,000 km (2,500 mi) long, 200 km (120 mi) wide and up to 7 km (23,000 ft) deep, [3] [4] Valles Marineris is the largest canyon in the Solar System. [ 5 ] Valles Marineris is located along the equator of Mars, on the east side of the Tharsis Bulge, and stretches for nearly a quarter of the planet's circumference.