Most people would say Venus is Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour. Averaged across its orbit, though, the planet that stays closest to Earth is Mercury. The claim comes from a 2019 commentary in Physics Today by Tom Stockman, Gabriel Monroe and Samuel Cordner, and it has a tidy, faintly irritating quality: it is correct, and it [...] The post Almost everyone assumes Venus is our nearest neighbour, but averaged across its orbit the planet closest to Earth is actually Mercury appeared first on Sp