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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag London Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
North, G. (1997). The Planet Mars. In: Astronomy Explained. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0901-3_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0901-3_8
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-76136-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-0901-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive