Explanation

1. Mercury

Swift Planet for Mercury

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2. Venus

Eight planets in the solar system

Explanation

Venus
Venus is the closest planet to Earth when it's between Earth and the sun.

At this point, Venus is about 24 million miles away from Earth.

This happens every 584 days.
Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet to Earth while Venus is on the opposite side of the sun from Earth.

At this point, Mercury is about 33 million miles away from Earth.

Explanation

• The Earth takes approximately 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.9 seconds to complete one rotation on its axis, which is called a sidereal day.
• This is the time it takes for the Earth to rotate once relative to the fixed stars.
• The extra 4 minutes is due to the Earth's slightly ellipsoidal shape and the effects of the Moon's gravitational pull.

Explanation

A galaxy is a gravitational system of stars, star remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter.

Earth: diameter of approximately 12,742 kilometers (7,918 miles)

The Sun: diameter of approximately 1,392,684 kilometers (865,374 miles)

Solar System: diameter of approximately 9.2 billion kilometers (5.7 billion miles)

Galaxy (Milky Way): diameter of approximately 100,000 to 200,000 light-years (9.461 × 10^17 to 1.884 × 10^18 kilometers)

Explanation