Planet

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


Planetary-sized objects to scale:
Top row: Uranus and Neptune;
second row: Earth, the white dwarf Sirius B, Venus;
bottom row (reproduced and enlarged in lower image)above: Mars and Mercury;
below: the Moon, dwarf planets Pluto and Haumea
A planet (from Ancient Greek (astr plants), meaning "wandering star") is
an astronomical object orbitinga star or stellar remnant that
is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity,
is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and
has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.
[a][1][2]

The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science, mythology, and religion. The planets were
originally seen by many early cultures as divine, or as emissaries of deities. As scientific knowledge
advanced, human perception of the planets changed, incorporating a number of disparate objects. In
2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially adopted a resolution defining
planets within the Solar System. This definition is controversial because it excludes many objects
ofplanetary mass based on where or what they orbit. Although eight of the planetary bodies
discovered before 1950 remain "planets" under the modern definition, some celestial bodies, such
as Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta (each an object in the Solar asteroid belt), and Pluto (the first-
discovered trans-Neptunian object), that were once considered planets by the scientific community
are no longer viewed as such.
The planets were thought by Ptolemy to orbit Earth in deferent and epicycle motions. Although the
idea that the planets orbited the Sun had been suggested many times, it was not until the 17th
century that this view was supported by evidence from the first telescopic astronomical observations,
performed by Galileo Galilei. By careful analysis of the observation data,Johannes Kepler found the
planets' orbits were not circular but elliptical. As observational tools improved, astronomers saw that,
like Earth, the planets rotated around tilted axes, and some shared such features as ice
caps and seasons. Since the dawn of the Space Age, close observation by space probes has found
that Earth and the other planets share characteristics such as volcanism, hurricanes, tectonics, and
even hydrology.
Planets are generally divided into two main types: large low-density gas giants, and smaller
rocky terrestrials. Under IAU definitions, there are eight planets in the Solar System. In order of
increasing distance from the Sun, they are the four terrestrials, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars,
then the four gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Six of the planets are orbited by one
or more natural satellites.
More than a thousand planets around other stars ("extrasolar planets" or "exoplanets") have been
discovered in the Milky Way: as of 12 September 2014, 1822 known extrasolar planets in
1137 planetary systems (including 467 multiple planetary systems), ranging in size from Earth to gas
giants larger than Jupiter.
[3]
On December 20, 2011, the Kepler Space Telescopeteam reported the
discovery of the first Earth-sized extrasolar planets, Kepler-20e
[4]
and Kepler-20f,
[5]
orbiting a Sun-like
star, Kepler-20.
[6][7][8]
A 2012 study, analyzinggravitational microlensing data, estimates an average of
at least 1.6 bound planets for every star in the Milky Way.
[9]
Around one in five Sun-like
[b]
stars is
thought to have an Earth-sized
[c]
planet in its habitable
[d]
zone.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
o 1.1 Babylon
o 1.2 Greco-Roman astronomy
o 1.3 India
o 1.4 Medieval Muslim astronomy
o 1.5 European Renaissance
o 1.6 19th century
o 1.7 20th century
o 1.8 21st century
1.8.1 Extrasolar planet definition
1.8.2 2006 definition
o 1.9 Objects formerly considered planets
2 Mythology and naming
3 Formation
4 Solar System
o 4.1 Planetary attributes
5 Exoplanets
6 Planetary-mass objects
o 6.1 Rogue planets
o 6.2 Sub-brown dwarfs
o 6.3 Former stars
o 6.4 Satellite planets and belt planets
o 6.5 Captured planets
7 Attributes
o 7.1 Dynamic characteristics
7.1.1 Orbit
7.1.2 Axial tilt
7.1.3 Rotation
7.1.4 Orbital clearing
o 7.2 Physical characteristics
7.2.1 Mass
7.2.2 Internal differentiation
7.2.3 Atmosphere
7.2.4 Magnetosphere
o 7.3 Secondary characteristics
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 External links
History
Further information: History of astronomy and Definition of planet
See also: Timeline of Solar System astronomy

Printed rendition of a geocentric cosmological model fromCosmographia, Antwerp, 1539
The idea of planets has evolved over its history, from the divine wandering stars of antiquity to the
earthly objects of the scientific age. The concept has expanded to include worlds not only in the
Solar System, but in hundreds of other extrasolar systems. The ambiguities inherent in defining
planets have led to much scientific controversy.
The five classical planets, being visible to the naked eye, have been known since ancient times and
have had a significant impact onmythology, religious cosmology, and ancient astronomy. In ancient
times, astronomers noted how certain lights moved across the sky in relation to the other stars.
Ancient Greeks called these lights (planetes asteres, "wandering stars") or
simply (plantai, "wanderers"),
[10]
from which today's word "planet" was derived.
[11][12]
In
ancient Greece, China, Babylon, and indeed all pre-modern civilizations,
[13][14]
it was almost
universally believed that Earth was the center of the Universe and that all the "planets" circled Earth.
The reasons for this perception were that stars and planets appeared to revolve around Earth each
day
[15]
and the apparentlycommon-sense perceptions that Earth was solid and stable and that it was
not moving but at rest.
Babylon
Main article: Babylonian astronomy
The first civilization known to possess a functional theory of the planets were the Babylonians, who
lived in Mesopotamia in the first and second millennia BC. The oldest surviving planetary
astronomical text is the Babylonian Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, a 7th-century BC copy of a list of
observations of the motions of the planet Venus, that probably dates as early as the second
millennium BC.
[16]
The MUL.APIN is a pair of cuneiform tablets dating from the 7th century BC that
lays out the motions of the Sun, Moon and planets over the course of the year.
[17]
The Babylonian
astrologers also laid the foundations of what would eventually become Western
astrology.
[18]
The Enuma anu enlil, written during the Neo-Assyrian period in the 7th century
BC,
[19]
comprises a list of omens and their relationships with various celestial phenomena including
the motions of the planets.
[20][21]
Venus, Mercury and the outer planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were
all identified by Babylonian astronomers. These would remain the only known planets until the
invention of the telescope in e