does earth have a smaller orbit than mars or  venus?
359420
Venus is closer to the sun than Earth so has a smaller orbit.\nMars is further from the sun than us, so has a bigger orbit.
1043193
Venus is closer to the Earth than Mars is.
889751
Possible, yes.  Likely, no.  We know the orbits of the satellites we put up pretty well.\n\nHowever, there IS a lot of junk orbiting the Earth - pieces of spacecraft, nuts, bolts, etc - and they are orbiting fast.  Being hit by a fast-moving piece of space trash is something they have to keep in mind and try to account for when building shuttles.
546930
The diameter of Mars at its equator is 6,794 kilometers (4,222 miles), compared to Earth's 12,756 kilometers (7,928 miles).  This is 53% of Earth's size.\n\nIt also has about 30% of Earth's gravity, 11% of Earth's mass, and 1% of Earth's atmospheric pressure.  Oh, and it has 0% of Earth's population, but that statistic is the most likely of any of them to change.
66192
It is due to the slight orbital eccentricity of Earth rotation around the Sun. Since the orbit is not perfectly circular the distance between the two bodies varies.
51021
No. Planets orbit stars.  The earth is a planet orbitting its star, the Sun.
902718
You are confusing the terms here.\n\nOnly planets outside the orbit of the Earth (superior) are ever at opposition.  Opposition is when the Sun, Earth and that planet line up in that order*.  Therefore, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune can all be at opposition.  Inferior planets though that orbit inside the Earth's orbit, (namely Venus and Mercury) can never be at opposition because their orbits will never take them past the Earth so that the Earth will be between them and the sun.\n\nInferior planets can, however be at conjunction.  This is when either the planet, sun and Earth line up in that order or the sun, the planet and the Earth line up in that order*.\n\nOpposition is an alright time to view a planet because it is fully illuminated.  If a light source is behind you and you look at something you see it is totally illuminated (assuming it's far enough away for your shadow to not interfere).  The conjunction that Mercury and Venus expirience is a very bad time to view the planets because either they are infront of the sun from our point of view and so we can't make the planet out in the blinding light, or it is behind the sun from our point of view anyway*.
479177
Venus could be thought of as simply upside down. Something might have knocked it over. Current thinking in the field says that Venus was hit with a "mini planet" during formation and violently knocked over. Uranus might have suffered a similar blow (it is rotating perpendicular to the solar system, rolling on it's side). Crater evidence supports the existence of large mini-planets in the early days of our solar system. Some of these are the moons of the outer planets. Our own moon may be the result of such a collision with earth that flung material into orbit (everything may have been molten at this time). No one knows for sure. Venus also has a 3:2 rotational period with earth's orbit with the sun. Some think that this is due to a tidal resonance. Mercury also has a 3:2 proportion day to year. This resonance may also cause a wobble (earth wobbles due to the moon's tidal resonance), but it is unlikely this was strong enough to cause Venus's retrograde rotation.
1035435
At its closest, Venus is 26 million miles (41,840,000 km) away.\n\nMars is 35 million miles (56 million km) at the closest point in its orbit.\n\nThis is because the planets do not follow a circular orbit, but an elliptical one, around the sun.
701846
In a word - yes\n\nAll the planets affect each other, although not always in major ways. The solar system can be considered as a two body system (the sun and Jupiter) with perturbations (all the other planets).\n\nFor an example of this, look at the precession of the perehelion of Mercury. General Relativity accounts for a tiny amount of that, but the rest is from the effects of the other bodies in the solar system.
935070
Yes.  It is not strictly linear -- Venus has a far higher pressure than Earth does, even though its gravity is slightly less.  But generally it is true.  When you study Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics, you will learn why.  The chemical composition and temperature of the atmosphere are important factors.
392165
Because it takes the earth 24 hours to orbit, . I know what you mean though, i wish there were more hours in the day.
1116109
Even though Mars is said to be the most Earth like plant in our solar system. For instance.\n1. Day length (Earth 23h 56min to Mars 24h 37min)\n2. Distance from the sun (Earth 1AU, Mars 1.381AU - 1666AU)\n\nThere are many difference between Earth and Mars that would effect life.\n1. there is no breathable air on mars (made up of 95.3% CO2 and only 0.15% Oxygen). \n2. the gravity of mars in only 38% of Earth, and most likely resulting in muscle deterioration of earth based species (Use it or loss it).\n3. There is also a difference in planet temperature (Mars has be known to have temperatures around -55 degrees Celsius)\n\nThese points among others mean that life on Mars (if possible) would require a different approach then living on Earth.
220923
not sure about the mass and size, i always thought mars is bigger than earth? just are you sure your questions are sensible coz as far as i remember, we on earth are still trying to figure out how to get there.
7432
If we just look at the sun, earth, moon system, all three bodies orbit the center of mass of this 3-body system.  Since the sun is much more massive than the other two bodies, the location of the center of mass of this system is inside the sun, so the sun moves very little, while the earth and moon appear to orbit the sun.\n\nNow, the earth and the moon also interact gravitationally, and they orbit the center of mass of the earth moon system  The center of mass of this earth-moon system is located inside the earth, so the moon looks like it orbits the earth.  \n\nYou can view the earth and moon as being in orbit around their center of mass, and the earth-moon system center of mass being in orbit around the earth-sun-moon system.\n\nIf the sun, earth, moon had equivalent masses, and if there were no other gravity bodies in the universe, they would appear to have orbits around the center of mass of this smaller earth, moon, sun system.\n\nI think the term"orbit" can be a little confusing because it's not always clearly defined.  The gravitational attraction of the sun on the moon is greater than the earth's attraction on the moon, so you could also argue that the moon really orbits the sun, with it's orbit modified by the earth.
433514
Possibly, but i believe venus is a better candidate.  The higher gravity of venus (very earthlike) would allow it to sustain an atmosphere like ours if we can solve 2 other problems...more solar radiation, and a retrograde day that is months long.\n\nThe L.O.V.E. project (Life On Venus Enhancement) I made this up when i was a kid:  solution 1 - put lightweight, but very large reflectors into orbit around venus, on the day side they will block light in a 24 hour pattern, on the night side they will provide sunlight in the same pattern.\n\nsolution 2 - release into orbit around venus a cloud of particles to reduce the solar radiation and also use the reflectors/shades described above.\n\nAs the temperatures approach earthlike conditions, introduce water (capture a comet probably, or change it's orbit subtly to get it to venus.)\n\nIt's possible there is substantial water on venus tied up in some chemical situation or another, we don't know enough about it.\n\nand btw, for the other answers claiming mars is too hot, um, no?
189981
The sun does attract the earth quite a bit. That's what keeps the earth orbiting it instead of flying off into space.