Which planet comes closest to the earth in its orbit around the sun?
Sun-synchronous orbit rate. The plane of the orbit is not fixed in space relative to the distant stars, but rotates slowly about the Earth's axis. Typical Sun-synchronous orbits around Earth are about 600–800 km in altitude, with periods in the 96–100-minute range, and inclinations of around 98°. This is slightly retrograde compared to the direction of Earth's rotation: 0° represents an equatorial orbit, and 90° represents a polar orbit. Sun-synchronous orbits can happen around other oblate planets, such as Mars. A satellite around the almost spherical Venus, for example, will need an outside push to maintain a Sun-synchronous orbit. The angular precession
Sun-synchronous orbit causes. Earth observation satellites, in particular, prefer orbits with constant altitude when passing over the same spot. Careful selection of eccentricity and location of perigee reveals specific combinations where the perturbations largely cancel and hence the orbit is relatively stable – a frozen orbit. The ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat of European Space Agency, as well as the MetOp spacecraft of EUMETSAT, are all operated in such Sun-synchronous frozen orbits. Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO, also called a heliosynchronous orbit) is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's