QUESTION:
Why aren't there stars between Earth and Mars?

ANSWER from Bruce Jakosky on September 28, 1997:
There are no stars between the Earth and any of the planets in our solar
system.  Stars are much farther away than planets.  The closest star to our
Sun is over 200,000 times as far away as the Sun is from the Earth. And, the
farthest planet is only about 40 times as far away from the Sun as is the
Earth.  If a star were present within our solar system, the gravitational
forces from it would scatter the planets all over the place; this is not a
likely event, however, and there is no danger of this happening.