{"id":50891,"date":"2023-11-04T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-04T08:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/6b8f35b2-74f0-4894-91fe-0381e6efd0b6"},"modified":"2023-11-04T09:33:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T09:33:03","slug":"how-far-is-mars-from-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/how-far-is-mars-from-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"How far is Mars from the Sun?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A guide to Mars’s orbit around the Sun, and how its distance from its host star changes. <\/p>

By Russell Deeks\n <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 04 November 2023 at 08:15 AM<\/p>

\n\n

How far is Mars from the Sun? On average Mars is about 228 million kilometres or 142 million miles away from the Sun.<\/p>

You could also express Mars<\/a>‘s distance from the Sun as 1.5 AU \u2013 that is, 1.5x as far from the Sun as Earth is.<\/p>

But that\u2019s an average distance.<\/p>

At the time of writing, for instance, Mars is nearly 245.5 million kilometres from the Sun, and it can get as close as 206.7 million kilometres, or as distant as 249.3 million kilometres.<\/p>

What does the night sky look like on Mars?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>

NASA sunrise on Mars image captured by the Phoenix lander on 25 August 2008. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona\/Texas A&M University<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Orbital complications and caveats<\/strong><\/h2>
The difference in statistics surrounding a planet’s distance from the Sun is because planets\u2019 orbits aren\u2019t perfectly circular: the further out from the Sun you go the more elliptical (egg-shaped) they become.<\/p>
This means the distance between the Sun and the planet in question isn\u2019t constant, but in fact changes constantly.<\/p>
Hence astronomers talk about a planet’s average distance from the Sun (228 million kilometres, in Mars\u2019s case).<\/p>
The furthest and closest points on planets’ orbital trajectories are known as aphelion and perihelion, respectively<\/p>
For Mars, that\u2019s the 249.3 million and 206.7 million figures mentioned above.<\/p>
$\"An$
An image of Marker Band Valley on Mars captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover. Blue represents morning and yellow represents afternoon. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>
By way of comparison, the average distance between the Sun and Earth is 150 million kilometres (93 million miles).<\/p>
But that figure actually varies from 147.1 million kilometres at perihelion to 152.1 million kilometres at aphelion.<\/p>
That means sunlight takes an average of eight minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth<\/a>, whereas sunlight takes around 13 minutes to reach Mars.<\/p>
Just to complicate matters, not only are planets\u2019 orbits neither circular nor uniform, different planets also orbit at different speeds, which means their positions relative to the Sun can vary enormously.<\/p>
$\"Martian$
Martian sunrise part captured by NASA’s Insight spacecraft, 10 April 2022. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Where does Mercury fit in?<\/strong><\/h2>
All of this explains why we see certain planets at certain times of year and not others<\/p>
It also explains why, although Venus and Mars are technically the closest planets to Earth, Mercury is actually closer most of the time.<\/p>
That\u2019s because Mercury spends its time whizzing around our parent star in a tight, close orbit while Venus and Mars can often be found gallivanting way off on the other side of the Sun from Earth.<\/p>
That\u2019s why missions to Mars need to be planned so carefully, and launch at very specific times \u2013 and why the distance from Mars to the Sun is only half the story.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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