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by Becca Katzanek on December 9th, 2004

Becca Katzanek

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How far is Mercury from the Earth?

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  • by wickedwillie on December 15th, 2004

    wickedwillie

    Mercury's orbit is highly elliptical. This means that it revolves around the Sun so that it comes closer to the Sun and then farther away. Also, Mercury has a very strange rotation rate. Its gravitational dance with the Sun, combined with its eccentric orbit, has locked it into a 3:2 spin-orbit coupling. This means that the planet rotates three times for every two times it goes around the Sun. Therefor, the distance from earth to Mercury varies a lot:

    Minimum distance from earth: 77,300,000 km (48,000,000 miles)
    Minimum distance from earth: 221,900,000 km (137,900,000 miles)

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