Mars is the fourth planet from which star?

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It follows Mercury, Venus, and Earth in the Solar System’s outward order, making it the outermost of the four terrestrial, or rocky, planets.

The Sun is the star at the center of our planetary system and supplies the light and heat that drive Mars’s climate. Mars orbits at an average distance of about 228 million kilometers, or 1.52 astronomical units, from the Sun. Because its orbit is noticeably elliptical, that distance changes over the course of a Martian year.

Mars takes about 687 Earth days to complete one orbit around the Sun—nearly twice as long as Earth’s year. Its day is much closer to ours: one Martian solar day, called a sol, lasts about 24 hours and 39 minutes.

A common mistake is to confuse Mars’s position with its distance from Earth. Earth is Mars’s neighboring planet on the inward side, but the Sun—not Earth—is the reference point used when planets are numbered.