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The variation of Mars's axial tilt is much larger than for Earth because it lacks the stabilizing influence of a large moon like Earth's Moon. Mars has a 124,000-year obliquity cycle compared to 41,000 years for Earth.
At one point, 1.35 million Earth years ago, Mars had an eccentricity of roughly 0.002, much less than that of Earth today. [188] Mars's cycle of eccentricity is 96,000 Earth years compared to Earth's cycle of 100,000 years. [189] Mars has its closest approach to Earth in a synodic period of 779.94 days.
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 ...
Therefore, when Earth's orbit becomes more eccentric, the semi-minor axis shortens. This increases the magnitude of seasonal changes. [10] The relative increase in solar irradiation at closest approach to the Sun compared to the irradiation at the furthest distance is slightly larger than four times the eccentricity. For Earth's current orbital ...
The axial tilt of Jupiter is 3.13°, which is relatively small, so its seasons are insignificant compared to those of Earth and Mars. [134] Jupiter's rotation is the fastest of all the Solar System's planets, completing a rotation on its axis in slightly less than ten hours; this creates an equatorial bulge easily
The superior planets, orbiting outside the Earth's orbit, do not exhibit a full range of phases since their maximum phase angles are smaller than 90°. Mars often appears significantly gibbous, it has a maximum phase angle of 45°. Jupiter has a maximum phase angle of 11.1° and Saturn of 6°, [1] so their phases are almost always full.
In July 2020, the Perseverance rover underwent a 200-day, 300-million-mile journey to reach Mars.After landing in February 2021 in the Jezero Crater, the robot, controlled remotely from Earth, has ...
The planets are, in order of distance from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. There are three main belts of minor bodies: The asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. The Kuiper belt beyond Neptune, followed by the scattered disc. The Oort cloud in the boundaries of the Solar System.