Is there an online facility for finding out current distances of solar system planets from Earth?
Answer Hello, Unfortunately, I know of no sites that provide day-to-day updates of current distances of the planets. I do know there is a program called ‘Astronomy Lab’ that provides crude distances using a graph given over the year (you have to read off the graph to get the distance for a given date). But this is probably no where near the accuracy you want. The only other step is to seek out an Astonomical Ephemeris – say at a local library. This will have all the day to day distances for all the planets. You may also be able to purchase a copy online, say by googling ‘Astronomical Ephemeris’. The U.S. Naval Observatory generally publishes the most detailed, comprehensive one.
