How far is Mercury from the Earth?
by 
Becca Katzanek
ANSWERS: 2
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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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Mercury is an average distance of 48 million miles (77 million km) from Earth.
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