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The distance from the Earth to the Sun, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto?

2007-01-14 08:52:23 · 5 answers · asked by Ahmed Yar K 2 in Science & Mathematics Astronomy & Space

5 answers

In 2007, the distance from Earth to the Sun ranges from
147,093,602 km on Jan.3 (perihelion) to
152,097,053 km on July 7 (aphelion).

Dates are based on UT (used to be called GMT).

Because the planets are in orbit around the Sun, one would have to use the distance from the Sun to each planet, then add or subtract the Sun-Earth distance to find the max and min distances (depending if the planet is on the other side of the sun or in opposition (when we are between the Sun and the planet)).

Wikipedia will give you, for each planet, the range of distances from the Sun.

If you are satisfied with approximate distances, then use the following values in Astronomical Units (1 AU = 149,597,870.7 km)

Mean distances from the Sun
(calculated for Jan 20, 2007)

Mercury 0.3871
Venus 0.7233
Earth 1.0000 (actually, the barycentre of the Earth-Moon pair)
Mars 1.5237
Jupiter 5.2021
Saturn 9.5575
Uranus 19.1864
Neptune 30.1210

These are NOT the distances on Jan. 20; rather, they are the mean distance that the orbit would have if the planet stayed on the orbit that it has on Jan. 20. Planetary orbits do change because of each planet's influence on other planets. For example, Jupiter's orbit does get bigger by 0.005% between January and August 2007.

Most planets will see a slight increase in the same period. Mars and Mercury will see a slight decrease.

The orbit of the Earth-Moon pair increases by a tiny 0.0002% (that is still an increase of 300 km in our mean distance to the Sun)

2007-01-14 09:10:18 · answer #1 · answered by Raymond 7 · 1 1

The astronomical unit (AU or au or a.u. or sometimes ua) is a unit of length nearly equal to the semi-major axis of Earth's orbit around the Sun. The currently accepted value of the AU is 149 597 870 691 ± 30 metres (about 150 million kilometres or 93 million miles).

The symbol "ua" is recommended by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures [1], but in the United States and other anglophone countries the reverse usage is more common. The International Astronomical Union recommends "au" [2] and international standard ISO 31-1 uses "AU".

The distances are approximate mean distances. It has to be taken into consideration that the distances between celestial bodies change in time due to their orbits and other factors.

The Earth is 1.00 ± 0.02 AU from the Sun.
The Moon is 0.0026 ± 0.0001 AU from the Earth.
Mars is 1.52 ± 0.14 AU from the Sun.
Jupiter is 5.20 ± 0.05 AU from the Sun.
Pluto is 39.5 ± 9.8 AU from the Sun.
90377 Sedna's orbit ranges between 76 and 942 AU from the Sun; Sedna is currently (as of 2006) about 90 AU from the Sun.
As of August 2006, Voyager 1 is 100 AU from the Sun, the furthest of any man-made object.
Proxima Centauri (the nearest star) is ~268 000 AU away from the Sun.
The mean diameter of Betelgeuse is 2.57 AU.
The distance from the Sun to the centre of the Milky Way is approximately 1.7×109 AU.
The Earth is actually 147,104,753 km away from the Sun on 29 December and 152,091,803 km away from the Sun on 30 June.

2007-01-15 01:35:44 · answer #2 · answered by pradeep 2 · 0 0

Sun: Mean distance from Earth 149.6×106 km (92.95×106 mi)
(8.31 minutes at the speed of light)
Mercury is about 48,000,000 miles (77,300,000 kilometers) from Earth at its closest approach.
Venus at its closest approach is about 23.7 million miles (38.2 million kilometers) away.
The distance between Earth and Mars depends on the positions of the two planets in their orbits. It can be as small as about 33,900,000 miles (54,500,000 kilometers) or as large as about 249,000,000 miles (401,300,000 kilometers).
The distance of Jupiter is roughly 603,097,000 km (couldn't get a good number on that)
And that's all I could find. All the rest only have the distance from the sun. Sorry.

2007-01-14 17:23:56 · answer #3 · answered by Shifter 3 · 0 0

Mercury is about 48,000,000 miles (77,300,000 kilometers) from Earth at its closest approach.
Venus at its closest approach is about 23.7 million miles (38.2 million kilometers) away.
The distance between Earth and Mars depends on the positions of the two planets in their orbits. It can be as small as about 33,900,000 miles (54,500,000 kilometers) or as large as about 249,000,000 miles (401,300,000 kilometers).
The distance of Jupiter is roughly 603,097,000 km

2007-01-16 06:12:37 · answer #4 · answered by ap 2 · 0 0

yeah, it's constantly changing. the answer i'd give now will have changed by the time you read it.

2007-01-14 17:15:40 · answer #5 · answered by collinchristine_edwards 2 · 0 0

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