The distances between the planets of the solar system vary greatly. The reason for this is that large celestial bodies have elliptical orbits and none of them are perfect circles. For example, the distance between Mercury and Earth can range from 77 million kilometers at its closest point to 222 million kilometers at its farthest. There are huge differences in the distances between planets depending on their position on the orbital path.
The table below shows the eight planets and the average distance between them.
There are other parameters in the tables besides the distance between the planets of the solar system on a scale. You can also see the second table.
Distance between the Sun and the planets of the solar system
Eight planets in our system of planids occupy their orbits around the Sun. They rotate the star in ellipses. This means that their distance to the sunvaries depending on where they are on their trajectories. When they are closest to the Sun it is called perihelion and when they are farthest from it it is called aphelion.
Therefore, it is quite difficult to talk about the distance between the planets of the solar system - not only because their distances are constantly changing, but also because the spans are huge - they are sometimes difficult to measure. For this reason, astronomers often use a term called the astronomical unit, which represents the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
The chart below (first created by Universe Today founder Fraser Cain in 2008) shows all the planets and their distance from the Sun.
Example of specific celestial bodies
Consider the distance between the planets of the solar system in km, using specific examples.
Mercury
Closest distance from the Sun: 46 million km/29 million miles (0.307 AU).
Farthest distance from the Sun: 70 million km/43 million miles (0.666 AU).
Average distance: 57 million km/35 million miles (0.387 AU).
Proximity to Earth: 77.3 million km/48 million miles.
Venus
Closest distance from the Sun: 107 million km/66 million miles (0.718 AU).
Farthest distance from the Sun: 109 million km/68 million miles (0.728 AU).
Average distance: 108 million km/67 million miles (0.722 AU).
Proximity to Earth: 147 million km/91million miles (0.98 AU).
Mars
Closest distance from the Sun: 205 million km/127 million miles (1.38 AU).
Farthest distance from the Sun: 249 million km/155 million miles (1.66 AU).
Average distance: 228 million km/142 million miles (1.52 AU).
Proximity to Earth: 55 million km/34 million miles.
Jupiter
Closest distance from the Sun: 741 million km/460 million miles (4.95 AU).
Farthest distance from the Sun: 817 million km/508 million miles (5.46 AU).
Average distance: 779 million km/484 million miles (5.20 AU).
Proximity to Earth: 588 million km/346 million miles.
Saturn
Closest distance from the Sun: 1.35 billion km/839 million miles (9.05 AU).
Farthest distance from the Sun: 1.51 billion km/938 million miles (10.12 AU) Average: 1.43 billion km/889 million miles (9.58 AU).
Proximity to Earth: 1.2 billion km/746 million miles.
Uranium
Closest distance from the Sun: 2.75 billion km/1.71 billion miles (18.4 AU).
Farthest distance from the Sun: 3.00 billion km/1.86 billion miles (20.1 AU).
Average distance: 2.88 billion km/1.79 billion miles (19.2 AU).
Proximity to Earth: 2.57 billion km/1.6 billion miles.
Neptune
Closest distance from the Sun: 4.45 billion km/2.7 billion miles (29.8 AU).
Farthest distance from the Sun: 4.55 billion km/2.83 billion miles (30.4 AU).
Average distance: 4.50 billion km/2.8billion miles (30.1 AU).
Proximity to Earth: 4.3 billion km/2.7 billion miles.
Pluto
Closest distance from the Sun: 4.44 billion km/2.76 billion miles (29.7 AU).
Farthest distance from the Sun: 7.38 billion km/4.59 billion miles (49.3 AU).
Average distance: 5.91 billion km/3.67 billion miles (39.5 AU).
Proximity to Earth: 4.28 billion km/2.66 billion miles.
What is our system?
This is a gravitationally bound system of the Sun and objects that directly or indirectly orbit this star, including eight major and five dwarf planets, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Of the objects that directly orbit the Sun, eight are planets and the rest are smaller objects such as planetoid dwarfs and small solar system bodies.
History
The solar system was formed four and a half billion years ago as a result of some kind of gravitational collapse, the nature of which has not been fully explored. It is only known that in the place of our system there was once a huge cloud of gas and many asteroids. As a result, all the planets known to us, as well as small objects of the system, arose from these celestial bodies. Gas planets, as well as the Sun, appeared from that very primary cloud of dust and gas mixtures. The distance between the Sun and the planets of the solar system changed over time until it reached the current stable values. What is known for certain is that in other systems, gas giant planets are closer to the Sun, and this makes our system unique.
Small objects
Besides the planets, our system also abounds with a variety of small objects. These include Pluto, Ceres, various comets, and a large asteroid belt. The asteroid ring orbiting Saturn can also be attributed to the small objects of our beautiful system. Their orbits are quite unstable and they seem to drift in space, because their distance from the planets and from each other is constantly changing depending on various gravitational factors. You can learn about the regularity of the distance between the planets of the solar system from the material below.
Other features
Also, our system is notable for the constant streams of charged particles, the source of which is the Sun. These currents are called the solar wind. However, they are not particularly related to the main topic of the article, but this fact is very remarkable in the context of understanding what the surrounding space is and where we live. Our system is located in a zone called the Orion Arm, located at a distance of 26,000 light years from the very center of our own Milky Way galaxy. We can say that you and I live on the very, that neither is, the periphery of the universe!
Perception problem
For most of history, humanity did not recognize or understand the concept of the solar system. Most people until the late Middle Ages-Renaissance considered the Earthmotionless at the center of the universe, categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects that moved across the sky. Although the Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos was the first to hypothesize the heliocentric structure of the cosmos, Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to develop a mathematically predictive heliocentric system. You will learn about the patterns of distances between the planets of the solar system below.
A little more about distance
The distance from the Earth to the Sun is 1 astronomical unit (AU, 150,000,000 km, 93,000,000 miles). For comparison, the radius of the Sun is 0.0047 AU (700,000 km). Thus, the main star occupies 0.00001% (10-5%) of the volume of a sphere with a radius the size of the Earth's orbit, while the volume of the Earth is approximately one millionth (10-6) of the Sun. Jupiter - the largest planet - is 5.2 astronomical units (780,000,000 km) from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU), while the most distant planet Neptune is 30 AU (4.5 × 109 km) from the luminary.
With some exceptions, the farther a celestial body or belt is from the Sun, the greater the distance between its orbit and the orbit of the nearest object to it. For example, Venus is about 0.33 AU farther from the Sun than Mercury, while Saturn is 4.3 AU from Jupiter and Neptune is 10.5 AU from Uranus.
Efforts have been made to determine the relationship between these orbital distances (eg the Titzia-Bode law), but such a theory has not been accepted. Some of the images in this article show the orbits of various constituents. Solar system at different scales.
Distance simulation
There are models of the solar system that try to convey the relative scales associated with the solar system and with the distances between the planets of the planid system. Some of them are small in scale, while others are spread across cities or regions. The largest such scale model, the Swedish Solar System, uses the 110-meter (361 ft) Erickson Globe in Stockholm as the figure of the Sun, and following the scale Jupiter is a 7.5-meter (25 ft) sphere, while the furthest the current object, Sedna, is a 10 cm (4 in) sphere in Luleå, 912 km (567 miles) from the simulated sun.
If the distance from the Sun to Neptune is increased to 100 meters, then the luminary will have a diameter of about 3 cm (about two thirds of the diameter of a golf ball), the giant planets will be less than about 3 mm, and the diameter of the Earth along with those of other terrestrial planets will be less than a flea (0.3 mm) on this scale. To create such extraordinary models, mathematical formulas and calculations are used that take into account the real distances between the planets of the solar system and the golden ratio.
