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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 neither a star nor its remnant. 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 Solar System has at least eight planets: the terrestrial
planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
and Neptune.
The word planet probably comes from the Greek planḗtai, meaning "wanderers". In antiquity, this
word referred to the Sun, Moon, and five points of light visible by 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. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted a standard by
which the four terrestrials and four giants qualify, placing Ceres, Pluto, and Eris in the category
of dwarf planet,[1][2][3] although many planetary scientists have continued to apply the
term planet more broadly.[4]
Further advances in astronomy led to the discovery of over five thousand 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
Main article: Nebular hypothesis
Artists' impressions

A protoplanetary disk

Asteroids colliding during planet formation

It is not known with certainty how planets are built. The prevailing theory is that they are formed
during the collapse of a nebula into a thin disk of gas and dust. A protostar forms at the core,
surrounded by a rotating protoplanetary disk. Through accretion (a process of sticky collision)
dust particles in the disk steadily accumulate mass to form ever-larger bodies. Local
concentrations of mass known as planetesimals form, and these accelerate the accretion
process by drawing in additional material by their gravitational attraction. These concentrations
become ever denser until they collapse inward under gravity to form protoplanets.[5] After a planet
reaches a mass somewhat larger than Mars' mass, it begins to accumulate an extended
atmosphere,[6] greatly increasing the capture rate of the planetesimals by means of atmospheric
drag.[7][8] Depending on the accretion history of solids and gas, a giant planet, an ice giant, or
a terrestrial planet may result.[9][10][11] It is thought that the regular satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, and
Uranus formed in a similar way;[12][13] however, Triton was likely captured by Neptune,[14] and
Earth's Moon[15] and Pluto's Charon might have formed in collisions.[16]
When the protostar has grown such that it ignites to form a star, the surviving disk is removed
from the inside outward by photoevaporation, the solar wind, Poynting–Robertson drag and other
effects.[17][18] Thereafter there still may be many protoplanets orbiting the star or each other, but
over time many will collide, either to form a larger, combined protoplanet or release material for
other protoplanets to absorb.[19] Those objects that have become massive enough will capture
most matter in their orbital neighbourhoods to become planets. Protoplanets that have avoided
collisions may become natural satellites of planets through a process of gravitational capture, or
remain in belts of other objects to become either dwarf planets or small bodies.[20][21]
 Supernova remnant ejecta producing planet-forming material

The energetic impacts of the smaller planetesimals (as well as radioactive decay) will heat up the
growing planet, causing it to at least partially melt. The interior of the planet begins to
differentiate by density, with higher density materials sinking toward the core. [22] Smaller terrestrial
planets lose most of their atmospheres because of this accretion, but the lost gases can be
replaced by outgassing from the mantle and from the subsequent impact of comets.[23] (Smaller
planets will lose any atmosphere they gain through various escape mechanisms.[24])
With the discovery and observation of planetary systems around stars other than the Sun, it is
becoming possible to elaborate, revise or even replace this account. The level of metallicity—an
astronomical term describing the abundance of chemical elements with an atomic
number greater than 2 (helium)—appears to determine the likelihood that a star will have planets.
[25][26]
Hence, a metal-rich population I star is more likely to have a substantial planetary system
than a metal-poor, population II star.[27]
Planets in the Solar System
Main article: Solar System
According to the IAU definition, there are eight planets in the Solar System, which are (in
increasing distance from the Sun):[1] Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune. Jupiter is the largest, at 318 Earth masses, whereas Mercury is the smallest, at 0.055
Earth masses.[28]
The planets of the Solar System can be divided into categories based on their
composition. Terrestrials are similar to Earth, with bodies largely composed of rock and metal:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Earth is the largest terrestrial planet. [29] Giant planets are
significantly more massive than the terrestrials: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. [29] They
differ from the terrestrial planets in composition. The gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, are primarily
composed of hydrogen and helium and are the most massive planets in the Solar System.
Saturn is one third as massive as Jupiter, at 95 Earth masses.[30] The ice giants, Uranus and
Neptune, are primarily composed of low-boiling-point materials such as water, methane, and
ammonia, with thick atmospheres of hydrogen and helium. They have a significantly lower mass
than the gas giants (only 14 and 17 Earth masses).[30]
The Sun's, planets', dwarf planets' and moons' size to scale, labelled. Distance of objects is not
to scale. The asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the Kuiper belt lies beyond
Neptune's orbit.
Dwarf planets are gravitationally rounded, but have not cleared their orbits of other bodies. In
increasing order of average distance from the Sun, the ones generally agreed among
astronomers are Ceres, Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, Makemake, Gonggong, Eris,
and Sedna.[31][32] Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars
and Jupiter. The other eight all orbit beyond Neptune. Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, and
Makemake orbit in the Kuiper belt, which is a second belt of small Solar System bodies beyond
the orbit of Neptune. Gonggong and Eris orbit in the scattered disc, which is somewhat further
out and, unlike the Kuiper belt, is unstable towards interactions with Neptune. Sedna is the
largest known detached object, a population that never comes close enough to the Sun to
interact with any of the classical planets; the origins of their orbits are still being debated. All nine
are similar to terrestrial planets in having a solid surface, but they are made of ice and rock rather
than rock and metal. Moreover, all of them are smaller than Mercury, with Pluto being the largest
known dwarf planet and Eris being the most massive known.[33][34]
There are at least nineteen planetary-mass moons or satellite planets—moons large enough to
take on ellipsoidal shapes:[3]

 One satellite of Earth: the Moon

 Four satellites of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
 Seven satellites of Saturn: Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, and Iapetus
 Five satellites of Uranus: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon
 One satellite of Neptune: Triton
 One satellite of Pluto: Charon
The Moon, Io, and Europa have compositions similar to the terrestrial planets; the others are
made of ice and rock like the dwarf planets, with Tethys being made of almost pure ice. (Europa
is often considered an icy planet, though, because its surface ice layer makes it difficult to study
its interior.[3][35]) Ganymede and Titan are larger than Mercury by radius, and Callisto almost
equals it, but all three are much less massive. Mimas is the smallest object generally agreed to
be a geophysical planet, at about six millionths of Earth's mass, though there are many larger
bodies that may not be geophysical planets (e.g. Salacia).[31]
Exoplanets
Main article: Exoplanet

Exoplanet detections per year as of August 2023

(by NASA Exoplanet Archive)[36]
An exoplanet is a planet outside the Solar System. As of 1 June 2024, there are 5,742
confirmed exoplanets in 4,237 planetary systems, with 904 systems having more than one
planet.[37] Known exoplanets range in size from gas giants about twice as large as Jupiter down
to just over the size of the Moon. Analysis of gravitational microlensing data suggests a minimum
average of 1.6 bound planets for every star in the Milky Way.[38]
In early 1992, radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery
of two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12.[39] This discovery was confirmed and is generally
considered to be the first definitive detection of exoplanets. Researchers suspect they formed
from a disk remnant left over from the supernova that produced the pulsar.[40]
The first confirmed discovery of an exoplanet orbiting an ordinary main-sequence star occurred
on 6 October 1995, when Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of
Geneva announced the detection of 51 Pegasi b, an exoplanet around 51 Pegasi.[41] From then
until the Kepler mission most known exoplanets were gas giants comparable in mass to Jupiter
or larger as they were more easily detected. The catalog of Kepler candidate planets consists
mostly of planets the size of Neptune and smaller, down to smaller than Mercury. [42][43]
In 2011, the Kepler Space Telescope team reported the discovery of the first Earth-sized
exoplanets orbiting a Sun-like star, Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f.[44][45][46] Since that time, more than
100 planets have been identified that are approximately the same size as Earth, 20 of which orbit
in the habitable zone of their star – the range of orbits where a terrestrial planet could sustain
liquid water on its surface, given enough atmospheric pressure.[47][48][49] One in five Sun-like stars is
thought to have an Earth-sized planet in its habitable zone, which suggests that the nearest
would be expected to be within 12 light-years distance from Earth.[a] The frequency of occurrence
of such terrestrial planets is one of the variables in the Drake equation, which estimates the
number of intelligent, communicating civilizations that exist in the Milky Way.[52]
There are types of planets that do not exist in the Solar System: super-Earths and mini-
Neptunes, which have masses between that of Earth and Neptune. Objects less than about twice
the mass of Earth are expected to be rocky like Earth; beyond that, they become a mixture of
volatiles and gas like Neptune.[53] The planet Gliese 581c, with a mass 5.5–10.4 times the mass
of Earth,[54] attracted attention upon its discovery for potentially being in the habitable zone,
[55]
though later studies concluded that it is actually too close to its star to be habitable. [56] Planets
more massive than Jupiter are also known, extending seamlessly into the realm of brown dwarfs.
[57]

Exoplanets have been found that are much closer to their parent star than any planet in the Solar
System is to the Sun. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun at 0.4 AU, takes 88 days for an
orbit, but ultra-short period planets can orbit in less than a day. The Kepler-11 system has five of
its planets in shorter orbits than Mercury's, all of them much more massive than Mercury. There
are hot Jupiters, such as 51 Pegasi b,[41] that orbit very close to their star and may evaporate to
become chthonian planets, which are the leftover cores. There are also exoplanets that are much
farther from their star. Neptune is 30 AU from the Sun and takes 165 years to orbit, but there are
exoplanets that are thousands of AU from their star and take more than a million years to orbit.
e.g. COCONUTS-2b.[58]
Attributes
Although each planet has unique physical characteristics, a number of broad commonalities do
exist among them. Some of these characteristics, such as rings or natural satellites, have only as
yet been observed in planets in the Solar System, whereas others are commonly observed in
exoplanets.[59]
Dynamic characteristics
Orbit
Main articles: Orbit and orbital elements
See also: Kepler's laws of planetary motion and Exoplanetology § Orbital parameters

The orbit of the planet Neptune compared to

that of Pluto. Note the elongation of Pluto's orbit in relation to Neptune's (eccentricity), as well as
its large angle to the ecliptic (inclination).
In the Solar System, all the planets orbit the Sun in the same direction as the Sun
rotates: counter-clockwise as seen from above the Sun's north pole. At least one
exoplanet, WASP-17b, has been found to orbit in the opposite direction to its star's rotation.
[60]
The period of one revolution of a planet's orbit is known as its sidereal period or year.[61] A
planet's year depends on its distance from its star; the farther a planet is from its star, the longer
the distance it must travel and the slower its speed, since it is less affected by its star's gravity.
No planet's orbit is perfectly circular, and hence the distance of each from the host star varies
over the course of its year. The closest approach to its star is called its periastron, or perihelion in
the Solar System, whereas its farthest separation from the star is called its apastron (aphelion).
As a planet approaches periastron, its speed increases as it trades gravitational potential
energy for kinetic energy, just as a falling object on Earth accelerates as it falls. As the planet
nears apastron, its speed decreases, just as an object thrown upwards on Earth slows down as it
reaches the apex of its trajectory[62]
Each planet's orbit is delineated by a set of elements:

 The eccentricity of an orbit describes the elongation of a planet's elliptical (oval) orbit.
Planets with low eccentricities have more circular orbits, whereas planets with high
eccentricities have more elliptical orbits. The planets and large moons in the Solar System
have relatively low eccentricities, and thus nearly circular orbits.[61] The comets and many
Kuiper belt objects, as well as several exoplanets, have very high eccentricities, and thus
exceedingly elliptical orbits.[63][64]
 The semi-major axis gives the size of the orbit. It is the distance from the midpoint to the
longest diameter of its elliptical orbit. This distance is not the same as its apastron, because
no planet's orbit has its star at its exact centre.[61]
 The inclination of a planet tells how far above or below an established reference plane its
orbit is tilted. In the Solar System, the reference plane is the plane of Earth's orbit, called
the ecliptic. For exoplanets, the plane, known as the sky plane or plane of the sky, is the
plane perpendicular to the observer's line of sight from Earth.[65] The orbits of the eight major
planets of the Solar System all lie very close to the ecliptic; however, some smaller objects
like Pallas, Pluto, and Eris orbit at far more extreme angles to it, as do comets. [66] The large
 moons are generally not very inclined to their parent planets' equators, but Earth's Moon,
Saturn's Iapetus, and Neptune's Triton are exceptions. Triton is unique among the large
moons in that it orbits retrograde, i.e. in the direction opposite to its parent planet's rotation. [67]
 The points at which a planet crosses above and below its reference plane are called
its ascending and descending nodes.[61] The longitude of the ascending node is the angle
between the reference plane's 0 longitude and the planet's ascending node. The argument of
periapsis (or perihelion in the Solar System) is the angle between a planet's ascending node
and its closest approach to its star.[61]