That’s what I came to the comments for. Was hoping there was going to be a good conspiracy theory to mull.
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The discussion had moved away from that line to the distance of planets in general, and is dealing with the incorrect idea of the solar system. Because in terms of absolute measured distance, Mercury is the closest planet to every other planet simply because it is closest to the sun and the sun is the closest non-moon solar system object to every planet.
It is utterly useless information. That is why I strongly object.
It certainly is not. Test your hypothesis on @colbygk’s Wolfram Alpha link above. It’s only Earth and Venus that have Mercury as their closest planet.
And the discussion hadn’t “moved away … to the distance of planets in general” – you moved it there, but colbygk has been talking about “our nearest planet,” per the article title, from the start.
Come. You’ve argued yourself into a hole, but this is silly. Yes, we normally list the planets in order of their distance from the Sun, but it’s pretty unambiguous that Mercury is closer to us than either Venus or Mars are – both right now and most of the time. If that’s weird because orbital frames are confusing, so be it.
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