Illustration showing the orbit of Mars around the Sun. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, with an average distance from it of about 228 million kilometres. It takes nearly 687 days to orbit the Sun and just over 24 hours to rotate around its own axis. Its axis of rotation is tilted to the plane of its orbit by 25 degrees, giving rise to seasons that are similar to those on Earth but of different durations. For an unlabelled version of this image see C058/1004.