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Would you see further from a mountain on a large or a small planet?

It will depend on the local topography, say our readers - but the most expansive view in the solar system will be from the top of Mars’s Olympus Mons

29 May 2024

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Large planets have more distant horizons than small ones, but lower mountains due to higher gravity. On which would you see farther?

Chris Daniel
Glan Conwy, Conwy, UK

The maximum height of a mountain doesn’t appear to be closely related to the size of the planet, but views from the highest point are generally greater the larger the planet.

The four rocky planets of the solar system are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Of these, Mars is the third largest after Earth and Venus, but it has by far the highest mountain, Olympus Mons, at over 24,000 metres tall. From…

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