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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 ...
Orbit of Mars and other Inner Solar System planets. 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 (km) is the average orbital distance between the centers of the two bodies; r 1 (km) is the distance from the center of the primary to the barycenter; R 1 (km) is the radius of the primary r 1 / R 1 a value less than one means the barycenter lies inside the primary
Galactocentric orbit: [2] An orbit about the center of a galaxy. The Sun follows this type of orbit about the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. Heliocentric orbit: An orbit around the Sun. In the Solar System, all planets, comets, and asteroids are in such orbits, as are many artificial satellites and pieces of space debris.
where F g is the gravitational force acting between two objects, M E is the mass of the Earth, 5.9736 × 10 24 kg, m s is the mass of the satellite, r is the distance between the centers of their masses, and G is the gravitational constant, (6.674 28 ± 0.000 67) × 10 −11 m 3 kg −1 s −2.
Solar system diagram by Emanuel Bowen in 1747, when neither Uranus, Neptune, nor the asteroid belts had yet been discovered. Orbits of planets are to scale, but the orbits of moons and the sizes of bodies are not. The term "Solar System" entered the English language by 1704, when John Locke used it to refer to the Sun, planets, and comets. [288]
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Substituting the mass of Mars for M and the Martian sidereal day for T and solving for the semimajor axis yields a synchronous orbit radius of 20,428 km (12,693 mi) above the surface of the Mars equator. [3] [4] [5] Subtracting Mars's radius gives an orbital altitude of 17,032 km (10,583 mi). Two stable longitudes exist - 17.92°W and 167.83°E.