If Earth was 10 times farther away from the sun than it is now, which planet would it be closest to? (Assume all the planets are aligned with the sun and are on the same side of the sun.) Compare Earth's new distance to that planet. How far apart would they be in standard notation? How far apart in scientific notation? (short answer)

Question

If Earth was 10 times farther away from the sun than it is now, which planet would it be closest to? (Assume all the planets are aligned with the sun and are on the same side of the sun.) Compare Earth's new distance to that planet. How far apart would they be in standard notation? How far apart in scientific notation? (short answer)

Answer 1

If Earth was 10 times farther away from the sun than it is now, it would be closest to Mars. Let's compare Earth's new distance to Mars using standard notation.

Currently, Earth's average distance from the sun is about 93 million miles. If it were 10 times farther away, it would be 930 million miles from the sun.

Mars, on the other hand, has an average distance of about 142 million miles from the sun. Therefore, Earth would be 788 million miles away from Mars.

In scientific notation, Earth's new distance from the sun would be 9.3 x 10^7 miles, and its distance from Mars would be 7.88 x 10^8 miles.