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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 ...
In gravitationally bound systems, the orbital speed of an astronomical body or object (e.g. planet, moon, artificial satellite, spacecraft, or star) is the speed at which it orbits around either the barycenter (the combined center of mass) or, if one body is much more massive than the other bodies of the system combined, its speed relative to the center of mass of the most massive body.
Escape speed at a distance d from the center of a spherically symmetric primary body (such as a star or a planet) with mass M is given by the formula [2] [3] = = where: G is the universal gravitational constant (G ≈ 6.67 × 10 −11 m 3 ⋅kg −1 ⋅s −2 [4])
Most of the material orbits and rotates in one direction. This uniformity of motion is due to the collapse of a gas cloud. [1] The nature of the collapse is explained by conservation of angular momentum. In 2010 the discovery of several hot Jupiters with backward orbits called into question the theories about the formation of planetary systems. [2]
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An areostationary orbit or areosynchronous equatorial orbit (abbreviated AEO) is a circular areosynchronous orbit in the Martian equatorial plane about 20,428 km (12,693 mi) from the centre of mass of Mars, any point on which revolves about Mars in the same direction and with the same period as the Martian surface.
Researchers have discovered that Mars’s rotation is speeding up. Here's what's happening.
Mars hosts many enormous extinct volcanoes (the tallest is Olympus Mons, 21.9 km or 13.6 mi tall) and one of the largest canyons in the Solar System (Valles Marineris, 4,000 km or 2,500 mi long). Geologically, the planet is fairly active with marsquakes trembling underneath the ground, dust devils sweeping across the landscape, and cirrus clouds.