: 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

Mercury is closest on average. That is to say throughout the cycle around the sub for both planets, it is closer that Venus and Mars. Because at some points Venus and mars and earth orbits play out so that one planet is on the other side of the sun from earth.

We usually refer to orbits when talking about how close planets are, and generally its a much more useful category than physical proximity.