The distances vary. To get the distances between a pair of planets, look up their distances from the Sun (for example: Venus, 0.72 AU, Earth: 1.00 AU). Subtract these distances to get the closest distance (0.28 AU), and add them to get the farthest distance (1.72 AU), since they are farthest when they are on opposite sides of the Sun. This makes the simplifying assumption that the planets have circular orbits, so it is not entirely accurate, but close enough to get a general idea.
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Another contributor approached the matter this way:
Nearest that two of the solar system's planets can approach each other:
Mercury and Venus in line on the same side of the sun . . . 31.2 million miles.
Farthest apart for any two of the solar system's planets:
Neptune and Pluto in line on opposite sides of the sun . . . 6.463 billion miles.
In a rough ballpark, those two figures are the extremes. As the planets perform all of their
orbital revolutions, the distances between them are constantly changing, and are
always somewhere in this range. No two can ever be closer than 31.2 million miles,
nor farther apart than 6.463 billion miles.
Of course these numbers are completely incomprehensible, which of in turn means
that some people will see these numbers and worry about planets getting too close
together and having some sort of messy and catastrophic accident.
So we took that minimum distance between planets ... 31.2 million miles ... and found
a few things to compare it to, for the relief and comfort of visitors to this page:
The closest together that any two planets can ever be . . . 31.2 million miles, which is:
-- 87% of the distance from the sun to its nearest planet (Mercury)
-- 36 times the diameter of the sun
-- 131 times the distance between the earth and moon
-- 351 times the diameter of the largest planet (Jupiter)
-- a distance that takes a beam of light 2minutes 47seconds to cross it
My solar system extends from the Sun to the Oort Cloud which is about 1 light year away.
"The solar system does not really end with Pluto. Besides the planets, there is a thin haze of dust (some of it bunched into comets). Any of this dust that is nearer to the Sun than to any other star may be in the gravitational hold of the Sun and so counts as part of the solar system. So the outermost of such dust may be half way to the nearest star."
The distances vary. To get the distances between a pair of planets, look up their distances from the Sun (for example: Venus, 0.72 AU, Earth: 1.00 AU). Subtract these distances to get the closest distance (0.28 AU), and add them to get the farthest distance (1.72 AU), since they are farthest when they are on opposite sides of the Sun. This makes the simplifying assumption that the planets have circular orbits, so it is not entirely accurate, but close enough to get a general idea.
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Another contributor approached the matter this way:
Nearest that two of the solar system's planets can approach each other:
Mercury and Venus in line on the same side of the sun . . . 31.2 million miles.
Farthest apart for any two of the solar system's planets:
Neptune and Pluto in line on opposite sides of the sun . . . 6.463 billion miles.
In a rough ballpark, those two figures are the extremes. As the planets perform all of their
orbital revolutions, the distances between them are constantly changing, and are
always somewhere in this range. No two can ever be closer than 31.2 million miles,
nor farther apart than 6.463 billion miles.
Of course these numbers are completely incomprehensible, which of in turn means
that some people will see these numbers and worry about planets getting too close
together and having some sort of messy and catastrophic accident.
So we took that minimum distance between planets ... 31.2 million miles ... and found
a few things to compare it to, for the relief and comfort of visitors to this page:
The closest together that any two planets can ever be . . . 31.2 million miles, which is:
-- 87% of the distance from the sun to its nearest planet (Mercury)
-- 36 times the diameter of the sun
-- 131 times the distance between the earth and moon
-- 351 times the diameter of the largest planet (Jupiter)
-- a distance that takes a beam of light 2minutes 47seconds to cross it
Zero. The Earth is inside the Solar System, part of the Solar System.
Zero. The Earth is inside the Solar System, part of the Solar System.
Zero. The Earth is inside the Solar System, part of the Solar System.
Zero. The Earth is inside the Solar System, part of the Solar System.
If it is assumed that a spacecraft leaves the Earth at a velocity of 17500 miles per hour and the distance to the edge of the Solar System is 50 AU (edge of the Kuiper Belt). Then it can be calculated that it would take the craft 30.3 years to reach the edge.
However, if we assume the edge of the Solar System is the edge of the Sun's gravitational influence, a distance of 100,000 AU. The time it would take the same craft to leave would be 60600 years. That's around 1400 human generations.
Jupiter's orbit is elliptical, which means sometimes it is closer to the Sun than at other times.
The closest Jupiter gets to the Sun is referred to as Perihelion, and at its furthest Aphelion. The mean is called the semi major axis.
As you can see, light years are not a very good unit for measuring Jupiter's distance from the sun, since light takes well under an hour to make the trip from the Sun to Jupiter. The units scientists use to measure the distance between the planets and the sun are AU's or Astronomical Units.
Since Jupiter's moons revolve in orbits around Jupiter, each of them is sometimes farther from the sun than Jupiter, and sometimes closer to the sun than Jupiter. But each moon must average out at the same distance from the sun as Jupiter is. That distance is 483.8 million miles (778.6 million km).
Depends on what you consider the "edge": the outermost planet, Neptune, is almost three billion miles from the Sun, but there are things that are much farther.
The Oort Cloud, a sphere of more than a trillion small bodies that can become comets, may extend as much a one and a half light years from the Sun; that's almost ten trillion (10,000,000,000,000) miles.
From Wikipedia: "The Oort cloud ... is a hypothesized spherical cloud of comets which may lie roughly 50,000 AU, or nearly a light-year, from the Sun." Since the Oort cloud is part of the Solar System, that would result in a diameter of about 2 light-years.
All the planets are constantly orbiting the sun, at different speeds and different distances. So the distance between any two planets is always changing. It is therefore not possible to give definitive answers to your question.
These distances compare from a long distance but one that is not nearly as far as the distance between the outer planets.
We measure distances between celestial objects (such as suns, planets, and galaxies) by a unit of measurement called "AU" which stands for, Astronomical Unit. One AU is the equivalent to 93 million miles, which is roughly the distance from earth to the sun. Let's compare that to the next closest star to us, Alpha Centauri, which is 4.4 light years away, or about 271,930 AUs! Distances are Immense.
Both are units used to measure distances. An angstrom is 10-10 meters - a very small unit. An AU is the distance from Earth to Sun, used to compare distances in the Solar System - a distance of about 150 million kilometers.Both are units used to measure distances. An angstrom is 10-10 meters - a very small unit. An AU is the distance from Earth to Sun, used to compare distances in the Solar System - a distance of about 150 million kilometers.Both are units used to measure distances. An angstrom is 10-10 meters - a very small unit. An AU is the distance from Earth to Sun, used to compare distances in the Solar System - a distance of about 150 million kilometers.Both are units used to measure distances. An angstrom is 10-10 meters - a very small unit. An AU is the distance from Earth to Sun, used to compare distances in the Solar System - a distance of about 150 million kilometers.
The distances between the inner planets is smaller than the distances between the outer planets.
The distance between stars is a couple of order of magnitudes higher than the distance between planets.To put this into perspective, the distance between earth and the sun is 8 light-minutes and the distance between other planets doesn't go further than a few light-hours. On the other hand, the distance between our sun and the nearest star (alpha centauri) is 4.4 light-years. This means that this distance is about 38544 larger than the distance between planets.Beyond that, the distance between stars can be extremely high: a star on the other side of our galaxy will be about 100000 light-years away from us. The distance will keep rising as we move on to different galaxies, then different galaxy clusters, the super clusters and then, finally, the width of the universe.
These distances compare from a long distance but one that is not nearly as far as the distance between the outer planets.
We measure distances between celestial objects (such as suns, planets, and galaxies) by a unit of measurement called "AU" which stands for, Astronomical Unit. One AU is the equivalent to 93 million miles, which is roughly the distance from earth to the sun. Let's compare that to the next closest star to us, Alpha Centauri, which is 4.4 light years away, or about 271,930 AUs! Distances are Immense.
The distance between planets are measured in millions of kilometers while the distance between solar systems are measured in light years while the galxies and the universe are measured in AU (astronautical units)
The distance between stars are much greater than distances between objects in our solar system
They both use the astronomical unit or it can be called AU for short
Both are units used to measure distances. An angstrom is 10-10 meters - a very small unit. An AU is the distance from Earth to Sun, used to compare distances in the Solar System - a distance of about 150 million kilometers.Both are units used to measure distances. An angstrom is 10-10 meters - a very small unit. An AU is the distance from Earth to Sun, used to compare distances in the Solar System - a distance of about 150 million kilometers.Both are units used to measure distances. An angstrom is 10-10 meters - a very small unit. An AU is the distance from Earth to Sun, used to compare distances in the Solar System - a distance of about 150 million kilometers.Both are units used to measure distances. An angstrom is 10-10 meters - a very small unit. An AU is the distance from Earth to Sun, used to compare distances in the Solar System - a distance of about 150 million kilometers.
The distances between the inner planets is smaller than the distances between the outer planets.
The distances between the inner planets is smaller than the distances between the outer planets.
Either estimate the distance, or measure it. A compass is used by navigators to measure the distances between successive points, and to compare distances against the scale printed on the chart.
It's measured in "light years"1 Light year is the disatnce light travels in 1 year.Objects and distances in space have many different measurements. For distances, there is the Astronomical Unit(AU), which is the average distance between the earth and the sun. Also the Parsec(pc), which is the average distance to the nearest star. The Kiloparsec(kpc) is used to measure distances within our galaxy or within other galaxies. The Kiloparsec is approximately 1,000 pc, hence it's name. A Megaparsec(mpc) is used for measuring the distance between other galaxies and cosmology and is equal to 1,000,000 pc. Kilometres is the unit used for planets. For dust grains the unit would be microns, etc 1/1,000,000 of a meter. It is also common to compare objects. If I studied a star I might say it's radius is 5 solar radii, which means it is five times the size of the sun.The most common term for distance in space is the Parsec
The Sun is many thousands of times closer to Earth than any other star.
Both are the same distance from the equator.