Q: Earth is closer to nearby planets, including Venus and Mars, than it is to the sun. Why don't these other planets pull Earth toward them and cause it to veer off its orbit around the sun?

Flexi Says: Although Earth is much closer to its neighboring planets Venus and Mars than it is to the Sun, the Sun's mass is far greater than the planets--more than a million times greater than Mars, and hundreds of thousands of times greater than Venus. Gravity depends on both mass and distance. In this case, the far greater mass of the Sun results in a greater gravitational pull on Earth than our closer, but much smaller, planetary neighbors.