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To-scale diagram of distance between planets, with the white bar showing orbital variations. The size of the planets is not to scale. The astronomical unit (AU; equal to 150,000,000 km; 93,000,000 mi) is what the distance from the Earth to the Sun would be if the planet's orbit were perfectly circular.
The average diameter of the orbit of the Earth relative to the Sun. Encompasses the Sun, Mercury and Venus. Inner Solar System ~6.54 AU 9.78×10 8: 8.99: Encompasses the Sun, the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) and the asteroid belt. Cited distance is the 2:1 resonance with Jupiter, which marks the outer limit of the asteroid belt.
Earth orbit (yellow) compared to a circle (gray) Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149.60 million km (8.317 light minutes, 92.96 million mi) [1] in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from above the Northern Hemisphere. One complete orbit takes 365.256 days (1 sidereal year ), during which time Earth has traveled 940 million km ...
Earth orbits the Sun, making Earth the third-closest planet to the Sun and part of the inner Solar System. Earth's average orbital distance is about 150 million km (93 million mi), which is the basis for the astronomical unit (AU) and is equal to roughly 8.3 light minutes or 380 times Earth's distance to the Moon .
The astronomical unit (symbol: au, or AU) is a unit of length defined to be exactly equal to 149,597,870,700 m. Historically, the astronomical unit was conceived as the average Earth-Sun distance (the average of Earth's aphelion and perihelion), before its modern redefinition in 2012.
References. List of Solar System objects most distant from the Sun. Positions of known outer Solar System objects Sun Jupiter trojans (6,178) Scattered disc (>300) Giant planets J · S · U · N Centaurs (44,000) Kuiper belt (>1,000)(scale in AU; epoch as of January 2015; # of objects in parentheses) These Solar System minor planets are the ...
One astronomical unit (about 150 million kilometres; 93 million miles) is defined as the mean distance between the centres of the Sun and the Earth. The instantaneous distance varies by about ± 2.5 million km or 1.55 million miles as Earth moves from perihelion on ~ January 3rd to aphelion on ~ July 4th.
A quadrature occurs when the position of a body (moon or planet) is such that its elongation is 90° or 270°; i.e. the body-earth-sun angle is 90°. Of moons of other planets. Sometimes elongation may instead refer to the angular distance of a moon of another planet from its central planet, for instance the angular distance of Io from Jupiter.