> However it does not really go into the orbital mechanics to offer any intuitive explanation of this surprising result. I think you just need geometry to get

> However it does not really go into the orbital mechanics to offer any intuitive explanation of this surprising result. I think you just need geometry to get an intuitive explanation. 1. Draw the Sun and the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. 2. Pick a point on Earth's orbit for where Earth is. 3. Draw a circle around Earth that intersects the Sun. 4. Draw a line, tangent to that circle, that intersects the Sun. A hypothetical planet that orbits the sun at 0 distance has half of its orbit in the circle and half of its orbit outside the circle. As planets get further from the sun, an increasing proportion of their orbit sits outside the circle.