Is there another planet near Earth than Venus?

A new study measures the average distance between planets that detect the closest planet to the Earth, not two neighbors of Venus or Mars. ...

A new study measures the average distance between planets that detect the closest planet to the Earth, not two neighbors of Venus or Mars.

As we know, in the Solar System, the Earth is the third planet from the Sun, between two "neighbors" being Venus (the second planet) and Mars (the fourth planet). Astronomers have long calculated that among the two planets above, Venus is the closest to the earth, because the brightest star in the sky is in the shape of Morningstar at dawn and in the evening.

However, in a commentary published in Physics Today, a team calculated that the planet closest to Earth is ... Mercury.

Mercury - (photo: NASA)

This may sound strange, because Mercury is known to be the closest planet to the Sun. If you put 8 Solar System planets in a straight line, Venus will lie between Mercury and Earth.

However, according to the new research team, including doctors, engineers from the University of Alabama, NASA and the US Army Research and Development Center, the traditional way of showing only the distance between 2 planets when they are at the closest point in orbit. They proposed a new calculation, based on a method called "point circle", which calculated the planetary distance by taking the average distance between a series of points on their orbit for a period of 10,000 years.


With a cycle around the sun for 225 days, Venus and the Earth often have a long chase to get to the closest point, taking a lot of time on isolated days on one side and the other. Sun; while Mercury with the 88-day cycle is more likely to face the Earth.

Therefore, the average distance between Earth and Mercury is much closer than the distance between Earth and Venus.

However, not everyone agrees with the calculation above. Professor Steven Beckwith, director of the Space Science Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley (USA), who is not involved in the study, thinks this is an interesting way to redefine the "closest" term, But not deep enough. He said that people would still think that their neighbors at home next door are the ones who live closest to them, even if they spend 7 months every year living somewhere else.

Mr. Microscope