This is a special edition of more or less devoted to the planets.

If you're a loyal listener and you listened to last week's episode of the program, you

will have heard some of it, the first half, but you won't have heard the second half,

which is brand new, so enjoy.

Hello, and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service, with a program which celebrates

and checks the numbers that surround us in the news and everyday life.

And I'm Tim Halford.

This week, we Earthlings are taking a closer look at our neighbours in the solar system.

It's all because last spring, loyal listener Graham Sherman was settling down to enjoy

a BBC program called The Sky at Night, which was all about…

Mars, our nearest neighbour.

Which to him hit a wrong note.

Ignoring the Earth's move.

I think this is not really correct.

Surely the planet Venus has the closest orbit to the planet Earth.

Our listener Graham added that while Venus is orbit, the elliptical path it traces through

space is closest to Earth.

That doesn't mean that Venus itself is closer than Mars.

Sometimes it is, and sometimes not.

Each planet takes a different time to orbit the Sun, so sometimes Mars will be quite close

to us while Venus will be way over on the opposite side of the Sun.

So we got in touch with Chris Lintot, the Sky at Night presenter you heard who's also

...