Planet distance calculator: how far is each planet from Earth today?
This planet distance calculator answers “how far is Mars from Earth right now?” — and the same for Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, the Moon and the Sun. Pick a body and a date and time between 1800 and 2199, and you get the distance in kilometres, astronomical units and miles, how long light (or a radio signal) takes to cross it, whether the gap is growing or shrinking, and when the next closest and farthest points come.
Distances change all the time because Earth and the planets move on their own orbits. Mars swings between about 56 and 400 million km; Venus, the planet that comes nearest to us, ends up on the far side of the Sun at more than 250 million km. The calculator works these out in your browser from the VSOP87 planetary theory, and a table and an orbit sketch show all the planets at once.
How to use the Planet Distance Calculator
- Choose a Planet or body — Mars is selected to start.
- Press Right now, or set any Date and Time; choose whether that time is in your own time zone or UTC.
- Read the distance in kilometres, then AU, light travel time, miles and the speed at which the distance is changing.
- Check the cards for the next closest approach and the next farthest point (perigee/apogee for the Moon, perihelion/aphelion for the Sun).
- Compare all the bodies in the table, and click a row to switch to it.
Planet Distance Calculator features
Checked against NASA JPL
For nine test cases the results agree with JPL Horizons within 0.0005% for the planets and about 20 km for the Moon.
Four units
Kilometres, astronomical units, miles and light-minutes (light-seconds for the Moon).
Closest approach finder
Searches ahead for the next minimum and maximum distance and refines the date to within minutes.
All bodies at once
A table of every planet plus the Moon and Sun, with distance from the Sun and whether each is approaching or receding.
Orbit sketch
A top-down view of the planets on the chosen date, with the line of sight from Earth.
How the distances are computed
Planet positions come from VSOP87D, the analytical theory of P. Bretagnon and G. Francou (Astronomy & Astrophysics 202, 309, 1988), which gives each planet’s heliocentric longitude, latitude and radius as sums of periodic terms. This page keeps the 1,345 largest terms. The Earth-to-planet distance is the length of the vector between the two heliocentric positions, with the planet taken where it was when the light now arriving left it (light-time correction). The Moon uses Jean Meeus’s Astronomical Algorithms, chapter 47, through the same code as the moon phase calculator.
Distances are centre to centre. One astronomical unit is exactly 149,597,870.7 km and light covers it in 499.0 seconds. To check accuracy, the results were compared with NASA JPL’s Horizons system (DE441 ephemeris) on three dates: Mars on 1 January 2026, for example, is 2.410699 AU in Horizons and within 100 km of that here.
Typical distances from Earth
Mars comes close roughly every 26 months, near opposition. Its orbit is eccentric, so some approaches are much closer than others: about 56 million km in 2003, 62 million km in 2020, and about 101 million km in February 2027 — the calculator finds the exact date and distance from any starting date.
| Body | Closest, 2000–2050 | Farthest, 2000–2050 | Light time at closest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moon | about 356,000 km | about 407,000 km | 1.2 s |
| Sun | 147.1 million km (early Jan) | 152.1 million km (early Jul) | 8.2 min |
| Mercury | 82 million km | 217 million km | 4.6 min |
| Venus | 39.6 million km | 259.7 million km | 2.2 min |
| Mars | 55.8 million km (27 Aug 2003) | 400 million km | 3.1 min |
| Jupiter | 591 million km | 965 million km | 33 min |
| Saturn | 1.20 billion km | 1.65 billion km | 67 min |
| Neptune | 4.31 billion km | 4.65 billion km | 4.0 h |
Why the distance matters
Light time is the delay for every message to a spacecraft: rovers on Mars cannot be steered in real time because a command takes 3 to 22 minutes to arrive. Distance also sets how big and bright a planet looks, which is why Mars is spectacular near opposition — see which planets are up tonight with the planets visible tonight tool, or turn distances into light-years with the light-year converter.
Planet Distance Calculator FAQ
How far is Mars from Earth right now?
Press Right now with Mars selected: the planet distance calculator shows the current distance in km, AU, miles and light-minutes, and whether Mars is getting closer or moving away.
How far is Mars from Earth at its closest?
The closest approaches happen near opposition every 26 months, between about 56 and 101 million km. The card “Next closest approach” gives the date and distance of the next one.
How far is the Sun from Earth today?
Choose Sun. Earth is closest (perihelion, about 147.1 million km) in early January and farthest (aphelion, about 152.1 million km) in early July.
What is the Moon’s distance today?
Choose Moon. It varies between roughly 356,000 and 407,000 km over each month; the cards show the next perigee and apogee.
Which planet is closest to Earth?
On average Mercury, because it stays near the Sun, but at their closest approaches Venus comes nearest. The table sorts this out for any date.
How accurate is this?
Within about 0.0005% of NASA JPL Horizons for the planets (a few hundred km for Mercury to Mars) and about 20 km for the Moon, for dates between 1800 and 2199.