: I just learned that mercury is in fact the closest planet to the earth. What is this madness and since when?

Question

: I just learned that mercury is in fact the closest planet to the earth. What is this madness and since when?

In: 3690

Answer 1

You haven’t just learned it if you don’t understand.

Mercury is the closest to the sun. The sun is always the same distance to us. Mars is sometimes quite close to us, sometimes on the other side of the sun, which is very far. It spends most time further from us than the sun is.

Same goes with Venus, but to a lesser degree, as it’s a lot less far when it’s on the far side.

Same goes with Mercury, but to an even lesser degree, and it averages out as the closest.