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Solar System Planets Overview

A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that orbits a star and is classified into eight planets in the Solar System: four terrestrial and four giant planets. The term 'planet' has evolved over time, with historical associations to mythology and changes in definition due to discoveries like dwarf planets and exoplanets. The International Astronomical Union established a formal definition in 2006, and advancements in astronomy have led to the discovery of over 5,900 exoplanets, some of which may have conditions suitable for life.

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9 views2 pages

Solar System Planets Overview

A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that orbits a star and is classified into eight planets in the Solar System: four terrestrial and four giant planets. The term 'planet' has evolved over time, with historical associations to mythology and changes in definition due to discoveries like dwarf planets and exoplanets. The International Astronomical Union established a formal definition in 2006, and advancements in astronomy have led to the discovery of over 5,900 exoplanets, some of which may have conditions suitable for life.

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This article is about the astronomical object. For other uses, see Planet (disambiguation).

The eight planets of the Solar


System with size to scale (up to down, left to right): Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune (outer
planets), Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury (inner planets)

A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around
a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself.[1] The Solar System has eight planets by
the most restrictive definition of the term: the terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars,
and the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The best available theory of planet
formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of
a nebula to create a young protostar orbited by a protoplanetary disk. Planets grow in this disk by the
gradual accumulation of material driven by gravity, a process called accretion.

The word planet comes from the Greek πλανήται (planḗtai) 'wanderers'. In antiquity, this word
referred to the Sun, Moon, and five points of light visible to the naked eye that moved across the
background of the stars—namely, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Planets have historically
had religious associations: multiple cultures identified celestial bodies with gods, and these
connections with mythology and folklore persist in the schemes for naming newly discovered Solar
System bodies. Earth itself was recognized as a planet
when heliocentrism supplanted geocentrism during the 16th and 17th centuries.

With the development of the telescope, the meaning of planet broadened to include objects only
visible with assistance: the moons of the planets beyond Earth; the ice giants Uranus and
Neptune; Ceres and other bodies later recognized to be part of the asteroid belt; and Pluto, later
found to be the largest member of the collection of icy bodies known as the Kuiper belt. The
discovery of other large objects in the Kuiper belt, particularly Eris, spurred debate about how
exactly to define a planet. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted a definition
of a planet in the Solar System, placing the four terrestrial planets and the four giant planets in the
planet category; Ceres, Pluto, and Eris are in the category of dwarf planet.[2][3][4] Many planetary
scientists have nonetheless continued to apply the term planet more broadly, including dwarf planets
as well as rounded satellites like the Moon.[5]

Further advances in astronomy led to the discovery of over 5,900 planets outside the Solar System,
termed exoplanets. These often show unusual features that the Solar System planets do not show,
such as hot Jupiters—giant planets that orbit close to their parent stars, like 51 Pegasi b—and
extremely eccentric orbits, such as HD 20782 b. The discovery of brown dwarfs and planets larger
than Jupiter also spurred debate on the definition, regarding where exactly to draw the line between
a planet and a star. Multiple exoplanets have been found to orbit in the habitable zones of their stars
(where liquid water can potentially exist on a planetary surface), but Earth remains the only planet
known to support life.

Formation

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