Question

How far is Mars from Earth?

Answer 1

Hint : The mars is almost $151.64$ million kilometers from Earth or we can even say that it is $33.9$ miles. Although the distance between the two planets keeps on changing due to various factors. This closest distance between the two planets such that they can be seen by naked eyes is attained every $15$ or $17$ years.

Complete Step-by-step solution: We know that the planets of our solar system keep on revolving around the sun on their respective spherical orbits. Therefore, there are times when Mars and Earth are closest to each other while sometimes they have the farthest distances between them. $151.64$ million kilometers is the distance of Mars from Earth when both of them are closest to each other. The spherical orbits of the planets are also affected by the gravitational forces of attraction due to other planets that are orbiting near the respective planet. Mainly Jupiter due to its great size, exhibits very large forces of gravitational attraction that tend to change the orbit of Mars. When Mars is closest to the Earth, then we can see it even with our naked eyes, it appears to be a bright spot in the sky. The time taken by scientists to travel from Earth to Mars is around $6 - 8$ months. The next time when Mars will be the closest from our planet will be in the year $2022$.

Note: When spacecraft are sent to mars, they cannot directly travel towards Mars due to the gravitational attraction from Earth. The spacecraft revolve in orbits and when they reach the Hoeman Transfer orbit then they can defy the gravitational forces from the Earth and travel towards Mars.