To find out how much closer Mercury is to the Sun compared to Neptune, we need to subtract the average distance of Mercury from the average distance of Neptune.
Given:
- Distance from the Sun to Neptune: \( 4.5 \times 10^9 \) kilometers
- Distance from the Sun to Mercury: \( 5.79 \times 10^7 \) kilometers
We want to calculate:
\[ \text{Distance to Neptune} - \text{Distance to Mercury} = 4.5 \times 10^9 - 5.79 \times 10^7 \]
Before we can do this subtraction, we need to convert \( 5.79 \times 10^7 \) into a form compatible with \( 4.5 \times 10^9 \). We can express \( 5.79 \times 10^7 \) in terms of \( 10^9 \):
\[ 5.79 \times 10^7 = 0.0579 \times 10^9 \]
Now we can perform the subtraction:
\[ 4.5 \times 10^9 - 0.0579 \times 10^9 = (4.5 - 0.0579) \times 10^9 \]
Calculating the subtraction:
\[ 4.5 - 0.0579 = 4.4421 \]
Thus, we have:
\[ 4.5 \times 10^9 - 5.79 \times 10^7 = 4.4421 \times 10^9 \]
Now, to find how much closer Mercury is to the Sun than Neptune, we just need the absolute difference:
\[ \text{Difference} = 4.4421 \times 10^9 \text{ kilometers} \]
So, the final answer, expressing the distance that Mercury is closer to the Sun compared to Neptune in scientific notation, is:
\[ \boxed{4.4421 \times 10^9} \text{ kilometers} \]
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