Abstract
Beyond the Earth’s orbit, at a mean distance of 228 million km from the Sun, lies the orbit of the planet Mars. Mars is thus the first of the superior planets (planets which orbit the Sun at greater distances from it than the Earth does). Apart from the orbits of Mercury and Pluto, Mars’s orbit has the highest eccentricity of all the major planets. The orbital radius of Mars varies from 250 million km at aphelion, decreasing to 208 million km at perihelion. The sidereal period of Mars (the time taken for Mars to go once round the Sun) is 687 Earth-days.
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© 1988 Gerald North
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North, G. (1988). The Planet Mars. In: Mastering Astronomy. Macmillan Mastering Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19604-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19604-3_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-45656-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-19604-3
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