How Far is Mars Away from the Sun?
Written by Fraser Cain
Mars. Credit: NASA
Mars is the 4th planet from the Sun, and appears as a dull red star in our night sky. But how far is Mars away from the Sun? The average distance from the Sun to Mars is 227.92 million km or 141.62 miles. Compare this distance to the Earth's average distance from the Sun of 149.60 million km. Mars is 1.524 times further from the Sun than Earth.
But Mars is actually orbiting the Sun in an elliptical orbit. At its closest point, called perihelion, Mars is only 206.62 million km or 128.39 million miles from the Sun. And then at the most distant point of its orbit, called aphelion, Mars reaches 249.23 million km or 154.86 million miles from the Sun. The orbital eccentricity of Mars is 0.0935.
Another tool for measuring distance in the Solar System is the astronomical unit. 1 astronomical unit or AU is the average distance from the Sun to the Earth; approximately 150 million km. The average distance from the Sun to Mars is 1.52 AU.
We've written many articles about the distance to planets for Universe Today. Here's an article about how far all the planets are from the Sun, and here's how far Mercury is from the Sun.
If you'd like more info on Mars, check out NASA's World Book on Mars, and here's a link to the NASA Mars Exploration home page.
We've also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about Mars. Listen here, Episode 52: Mars.
Filed under: Astronomy
Tags: distance to mars, Mars, planet mars
