# Is Mars ever further away than Jupiter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680 "2012-03-03T22:20:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680/21 "2012-03-05T07:24:45Z")
Right now, Mars is a lot closer to opposition than Jupiter anyway. Jupiter isn’t very far from the sun in the sky right now. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680/22 "2012-03-05T12:32:13Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > **Stephen** Fry: “Hey, as long as you don’t make me smell Uranus!” (laughs) > Leela: “I don’t get it.” > Professor Farnsworth: “I’m sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.” > **Stephen** Fry: “Oh. What’s it called now?” > Professor Farnsworth: "Urectum. Um. _Philip J_, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680/23 "2012-03-05T19:21:52Z")
Although you have to admit _Jeeves and Bender_ would be a pretty cool show. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680/24 "2012-03-05T19:47:37Z")
\*\*Is Mars ever further away than Jupiter? \*\* Yes, if you are standing on Saturn, Neptune, one of Jupiter’s moons, etc. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680/25 "2012-03-05T21:14:40Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > \*\*Is Mars ever further away than Jupiter? \*\* > > Yes, if you are standing on Saturn, Neptune, one of Jupiter’s moons, etc. What kind of internet connection do they get out there? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680/26 "2012-03-05T21:17:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, by some definitions (not including the official one the IAU uses), Ceres (the largest of the asteroids) would qualify as a planet by itself. But even if you lumped all of the asteroids in the belt together into one single mass, it’d still be puny compared to the rest of the planets. I didn’t say it would be a _big_ planet - my point is that there’s an orbital “slot” between Mars and Jupiter, and quite a sizable skip in orbit radius which can get overlooked if one is simply looking at a list and sees Mars as #4 (orbital radius of ~1.5 AU) and Jupiter as #5 (5.2 AU). Of course, I’m still impressed by Bode’s Law, despite its utter uselessness. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680/27 "2012-03-06T19:02:23Z")
Note that [orbital resonances](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_resonance#Plutino_resonances) cause funky things to happen. E.g., Pluto can get closer to Uranus than it ever will to Neptune. But no such resonances apply to the OP’s question. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680/28 "2012-03-06T22:41:56Z")
> [@](#): > > I didn’t say it would be a big planet - my point is that there’s an orbital “slot” between Mars and Jupiter, and quite a sizable skip in orbit radius which can get overlooked if one is simply looking at a list and sees Mars as #4 (orbital radius of ~1.5 AU) and Jupiter as #5 (5.2 AU). Eh, not really. Yes, there’s a big gap between Mars and Jupiter, but there’s an even bigger gap between Jupiter and Saturn, or Saturn and Uranus, or Uranus and Neptune. The general rule here is just that gas giant planets have large gaps. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680/29 "2012-03-07T20:16:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Eh, not really. Yes, there’s a big gap between Mars and Jupiter, but there’s an even bigger gap between Jupiter and Saturn, or Saturn and Uranus, or Uranus and Neptune. The general rule here is just that gas giant planets have large gaps. Big gaps on an absolute scale. But on a log scale, without including the asteroid belt, there’s a distinct discontinuity between Mars and Jupiter. Otherwise, it’s smoothly varying, especially from Venus through Neptune. Or try plotting the ratio of orbit radii. With Ceres included, the ratios are all in the range 1.3 to 2. Without Ceres, the Jupiter/Mars ratio is an outlier at 3.4. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-mars-ever-further-away-than-jupiter/614680.md?page=1)