ges in weather patterns for each half of the planet.

Jupiter's axial tilt is very small, so its seasonal variation is minimal; Uranus, on
the other hand, has an axial tilt so extreme it is virtually on its side, which means that its hemispheres are either continually in
sunlight or continually in darkness around the time of its solstices.[69] In the Solar System, Mercury, Venus, Ceres, and Jupiter have
very small tilts; Pallas, Uranus, and Pluto have extreme ones; and Earth, Mars, Vesta, Saturn, and Neptune have moderate ones. [70]
[71][72][73]
Among exoplanets, axial tilts are not known for certain, though most hot Jupiters are believed to have a negligible axial tilt as
a result of their proximity to their stars.[74] Similarly, the axial tilts of the planetary-mass moons are near zero,[75] with Earth's Moon at
6.687° as the biggest exception;[76] additionally, Callisto's axial tilt varies between 0 and about 2 degrees on timescales of thousands
of years.[77]

Rotation
See also: Exoplanetology § Rotation and axial tilt

The planets rotate around invisible axes through their centres. A planet's rotation period is known as a stellar day. Most of the
planets in the Solar System rotate in the same direction as they orbit the Sun, which is counter-clockwise as seen from above the
Sun's north pole. The exceptions are Venus[78] and Uranus,[79] which rotate clockwise, though Uranus's extreme axial tilt means there
are differing conventions on which of its poles is "north", and therefore whether it is rotating clockwise or anti-clockwise.
[80]
Regardless of which convention is used, Uranus has a retrograde rotation relative to its orbit.[79]

Comparison of the rotation period (sped up 10 000 times, negative values

denoting retrograde), flattening and axial tilt of the planets and the Moon (SVG animation)

The rotation of a planet can be induced by several factors during formation. A net angular momentum can be induced by the
individual angular momentum contributions of accreted objects. The accretion of gas by the giant planets contributes to the angular
momentum. Finally, during the last stages of planet building, a stochastic process of protoplanetary accretion can randomly alter the
spin axis of the planet.[81] There is great variation in the length of day between the planets, with Venus taking 243 days to rotate, and
the giant planets only a few hours.[82] The rotational periods of exoplanets are not known, but for hot Jupiters, their proximity to their
stars means that they are tidally locked (that is, their orbits are in sync with their rotations). This means, they always show one face
to their stars, with one side in perpetual day, the other in perpetual night. [83] Mercury and Venus, the closest planets to the Sun,
similarly exhibit very slow rotation: Mercury is tidally locked into a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance (rotating three times for every two
revolutions around the Sun),[84] and Venus's rotation may be in equilibrium between tidal forces slowing it down and atmospheric
tides created by solar heating speeding it up.[85][86]

All the large moons are tidally locked to their parent planets;[87] Pluto and Charon are tidally locked to each other,[88] as are Eris and
Dysnomia,[89] and probably Orcus and its moon Vanth.[90] The other dwarf planets with known rotation periods rotate faster than Earth;
Haumea rotates so fast that it has been distorted into a triaxial ellipsoid.[91] The exoplanet Tau Boötis b and its parent star Tau
Boötis appear to be mutually tidally locked.[92][93]

Orbital clearing
Main article: Clearing the neighbourhood

The defining dynamic characteristic of a planet, according to the IAU definition, is that it has cleared its neighborhood. A planet that
has cleared its neighborhood has accumulated enough mass to gather up or sweep away all the planetesimals in its orbit. In effect,
it orbits its star in isolation, as opposed to sharing its orbit with a multitude of similar-sized objects. As described above, this
characteristic was mandated as part of the IAU's official definition of a planet in August 2006.[2] Although to date this criterion only
applies to the Solar System, a number of young extrasolar systems have been found in which evidence suggests orbital clearing is
taking place within their circumstellar discs.[94]

Physical characteristics
Size and shape
See also: Earth § Size and shape, Astronomical body § Size, and Planetary coordinate system

Gravity causes planets to be pulled into a roughly spherical shape, so a planet's size can be expressed roughly by an average
radius (for example, Earth radius or Jupiter radius). However, planets are not perfectly spherical; for example, the Earth's
rotation causes it to be slightly flattened at the poles with a bulge around the equator.[95] Therefore, a better approximation of Earth's
shape is an oblate spheroid, whose equatorial diameter is 43 kilometers (27 mi) larger than the pole-to-pole diameter.[96] Generally, a
planet's shape may be described by giving polar and equatorial radii of a spheroid or specifying a reference ellipsoid. From such a
specification, the planet's flattening, surface area, and volume can be calculated; its normal gravity can be computed knowing its
size, shape, rotation rate, and mass.[97]

Mass
Main article: Planetary mass

A planet's defining physical characteristic is that it is massive enough for the force of its own gravity to dominate over
the electromagnetic forces binding its physical structure, leading to a state of hydrostatic equilibrium. This effectively means that all
planets are spherical or spheroidal. Up to a certain mass, an object can be irregular in shape, but beyond that point, which varies
depending on the chemical makeup of the object, gravity begins to pull an object towards its own centre of mass until the object
collapses into a sphere.[98]

Mass is the prime attribute by which planets are distinguished from stars. No objects between the masses of the Sun and Jupiter
exist in the Solar System; but there are exoplanets of this size. The lower stellar mass limit is estimated to be around 75 to 80 times
that of Jupiter (MJ). Some authors advocate that this be used as the upper limit for planethood, on the grounds that the internal
physics of objects does not change between approximately one Saturn mass (beginning of significant self-compression) and the
onset of hydrogen burning and becoming a red dwarf star.[54] Beyond roughly 13 MJ (at least for objects with solar-type isotopic
abundance), an object achieves conditions suitable for nuclear fusion of deuterium: this has sometimes been advocated as a
boundary,[99] even though deuterium burning does not last very long and most brown dwarfs have long since finished burning their
deuterium.[58] This is not universally agreed upon: the exoplanets Encyclopaedia includes objects up to 60 MJ,[100] and the Exoplanet
Data Explorer up to 24 MJ.[101]

The smallest known exoplanet with an accurately known mass is PSR B1257+12A, one of the first exoplanets discovered, which
was found in 1992 in orbit around a pulsar. Its mass is roughly half that of the planet Mercury. [102] Even smaller is WD 1145+017 b,
orbiting a white dwarf; its mass is roughly that of the dwarf planet Haumea, and it is typically termed a minor planet. [103] The smallest
known planet orbiting a main-sequence star other than the Sun is Kepler-37b, with a mass (and radius) that is probably slightly
higher than that of the Moon.[44] The smallest object in the Solar System generally agreed to be a geophysical planet is Saturn's
moon Mimas, with a radius about 3.1% of Earth's and a mass about 0.00063% of Earth's. [104] Saturn's smaller moon Phoebe,
currently an irregular body of 1.7% Earth's radius[105] and 0.00014% Earth's mass,[104] is thought to have attained hydrostatic
equilibrium and differentiation early in its history before being battered out of shape by impacts. [106] Some asteroids may be
fragments of protoplanets that began to accrete and differentiate, but suffered catastrophic collisions, leaving only a metallic or
rocky core today,[107][108][109] or a reaccumulation of the resulting debris.[110]

Internal differentiation
Main article: Planetary differentiation

Illustration of the interior of Jupiter, with a rocky core overlaid by a deep

layer of metallic hydrogen

Every planet began its existence in an entirely fluid state; in early formation, the denser, heavier materials sank to the centre,
leaving the lighter materials near the surface. Each therefore has a differentiated interior consisting of a dense planetary
core surrounded by a mantle that either is or was a fluid. The terrestrial planets' mantles are sealed within hard crusts,[111] but in the
giant planets the mantle simply blends into the upper cloud layers. The terrestrial planets have cores of elements such
as iron and nickel and mantles of silicates. Jupiter and Saturn are believed to have cores of rock and metal surrounded by mantles
of metallic hydrogen.[112] Uranus and Neptune, which are smaller, have rocky cores surrounded by mantles of
water, ammonia, methane, and other ices.[113] The fluid action within these planets' cores creates a geodynamo that generates
a magnetic field.[111] Similar differentiation processes are believed to have occurred on some of the large moons and dwarf planets,
[32]
though the process may not always have been completed: Ceres, Callisto, and Titan appear to be incompletely differentiated. [114]
[115]
The asteroid Vesta, though not a dwarf planet because it was battered by impacts out of roundness, has a differentiated
interior[116] similar to that of Venus, Earth, and Mars.[109]

Atmosphere
Main articles: Atmosphere and extraterrestrial atmospheres

See also: Extraterrestrial skies

Earth's atmosphere

All of the Solar System planets except Mercury[117] have substantial atmospheres because their gravity is strong enough to keep
gases close to the surface. Saturn's largest moon Titan also has a substantial atmosphere thicker than that of Earth; [118] Neptune's
largest moon Triton[119] and the dwarf planet Pluto have more tenuous atmospheres.[120] The larger giant planets are massive enough
to keep large amounts of the light gases hydrogen and helium, whereas the smaller planets lose these gases into space.[121] Analysis
of exoplanets suggests that the threshold for being able to hold on to these light gases occurs at about 2.0+0.7
−0.6 ME, so that Earth and Venus are near the maximum size for rocky planets. [54]

The composition of Earth's atmosphere is different from the other planets because the various life processes that have transpired on
the planet have introduced free molecular oxygen.[122] The atmospheres of Mars and Venus are both dominated by carbon dioxide,
but differ drastically in density: the average surface pressure of Mars's atmosphere is less than 1% that of Earth's (too low to allow
liquid water to exist),[123] while the average surface pressure of Venus's atmosphere is about 92 times that of Earth's.[124] It is likely that
Venus's atmosphere was the result of a runaway greenhouse effect in its history, which today makes it the hottest planet by surface
temperature, hotter even than Mercury.[125] Despite hostile surface conditions, temperature, and pressure at about 50–55 km altitude
in Venus's atmosphere are close to Earthlike conditions (the only place in the Solar System beyond Earth where this is so), and this
region has been suggested as a plausible base for future human exploration.[126] Titan has the only nitrogen-rich planetary
atmosphere in the Solar System other than Earth's. Just as Earth's conditions are close to the triple point of water, allowing it to exist
in all three states on the planet's surface, so Titan's are to the triple point of methane.[127]

Planetary atmospheres are affected by the varying insolation or in