Solar System Planets: Order of The 8 (Or 9) Planets: Science & Astronomy
Solar System Planets: Order of The 8 (Or 9) Planets: Science & Astronomy
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The planets of the solar system as depicted by a NASA computer illustration. Orbits and sizes are not shown to scale.
Credit: NASA
Ever since the discovery of Pluto in 1930, kids grew up learning about the nine planets of our solar
system. That all changed starting in the late 1990s, when astronomers began to argue about
whether Pluto was a planet. In a highly controversial decision, the International Astronomical
Union ultimately decided in 2006 to call Pluto a “dwarf planet,” reducing the list of “real planets” in
our solar system to eight.
However, astronomers are now hunting for another planet in our solar system, a true ninth planet,
after evidence of its existence was unveiled on Jan. 20, 2016. The socalled "Planet Nine," as
scientists are calling it, is about 10 times the mass of Earth and 5,000 times the mass of Pluto.
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6/30/2016 Solar System Planets: Order of the 8 (or 9) Planets
[The Evidence for 'Planet Nine' in Our Solar System (Gallery)]
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Here’s the order of the planets, starting nearest the sun and working outward through the solar
system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune — and Planet Nine.
[Solar System Pictures: A Photo Tour]
If you insist on including Pluto, then that world would come after Neptune on the list; Pluto is truly
way out there, and on a wildly tilted, elliptical orbit (two of the several reasons it got demoted).
Interestingly, Pluto used to be the eighth planet, actually. More on that below.
Terrestrial planets
The inner four worlds are called “terrestrial planets,” because, like Earth, their surfaces are all
rocky. Pluto, too, has a solid surface (and a very frozen one) but has never been grouped with the
four terrestrials.
Jovian planets
The four large outer worlds — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — are known as the “Jovian
planets” (meaning “Jupiterlike”) because they are all huge compared to the terrestrial planets, and
because they are gaseous in nature rather than having rocky surfaces (though some or all of them
may have solid cores, astronomers say). According to NASA, "two of the outer planets beyond the
orbit of Mars — Jupiter and Saturn — are known as gas giants; the more distant Uranus and
Neptune are called ice giants." This is because, while the first two are dominated by gas, while the
last two have more ice. All four contain mostly hydrogen and helium.
Dwarf planets
The IAU definition of a fullfledged planet goes like this: A body that circles the sun without being
some other object's satellite, is large enough to be rounded by its own gravity (but not so big that it
begins to undergo nuclear fusion, like a star) and has "cleared its neighborhood" of most other
orbiting bodies. Yeah, that’s a mouthful.
The problem for Pluto, besides its small size and offbeat orbit, is that it shares its space with lots of
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other objects in the Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune. Still, the demotion of Pluto remains
controversial.
The IAU planet definition puts other small, round worlds in the dwarf planet category, including the
Kuiper Belt objects Eris, Haumea, and Makemake.
Also now a dwarf planet is Ceres, a round object in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Ceres was actually considered a planet when discovered in 1801 and then later deemed to be an
asteroid. Some astronomers like to consider Ceres as a 10th planet (not to be confused with Nibiru
or Planet X), but that line of thinking opens up the possibility of there being 13 planets, with more
bound to be discovered.
The planets
Below is a brief overview of the eight primary planets in our solar system, in order from the inner
solar system outward:
Mercury
The closest planet to the sun, Mercury is only a bit larger than Earth's moon.
Its day side is scorched by the sun and can reach 840 degrees Fahrenheit
(450 Celsius), but on the night side, temperatures drop to hundreds of
degrees below freezing. Mercury has virtually no atmosphere to absorb meteor impacts, so its
surface is pockmarked with craters, just like the moon. Over its fouryear mission, NASA's
MESSENGER spacecraft has revealed views of the planet that have challenged astronomers'
expectations.
Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye
Named for: Messenger of the Roman gods
Diameter: 3,031 miles (4,878 km)
Orbit: 88 Earth days
Day: 58.6 Earth days
Related:
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Mercury Pictures
NASA Solar System Exploration: Mercury
Venus
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The second planet from the sun, Venus is terribly hot, even hotter than
Mercury. The atmosphere is toxic. The pressure at the surface would crush
and kill you. Scientists describe Venus’ situation as a runaway greenhouse
effect. Its size and structure are similar to Earth, Venus' thick, toxic
atmosphere traps heat in a runaway "greenhouse effect." Oddly, Venus spins
Venus' southern
slowly in the opposite direction of most planets. hemisphere, as seen
in the ultraviolet.
The Greeks believed Venus was two different objects — one in the morning Credit: ESA
sky and another in the evening. Because it is often brighter than any other
object in the sky — except for the sun and moon — Venus has generated
many UFO reports.
Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye
Named for: Roman goddess of love and beauty
Diameter: 7,521 miles (12,104 km)
Orbit: 225 Earth days
Day: 241 Earth days
Related:
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Venus Pictures
NASA Solar System Exploration: Venus
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atmosphere is rich in lifesustaining nitrogen and oxygen. Earth's surface An image of the Earth
rotates about its axis at 1,532 feet per second (467 meters per second) — taken by the Russian
762 weather satellite
slightly more than 1,000 mph (1,600 kph) — at the equator. The planet zips
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around the sun at more than 18 miles per second (29 km per second).
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Diameter: 7,926 miles (12,760 km)
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Orbit: 365.24 days
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Day: 23 hours, 56 minutes
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VIDEO More Earth Information
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50 Amazing Facts about Earth
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Earth Pictures
NASA Solar System Exploration: Earth
Mars
The fourth planet from the sun, is a cold, dusty place. The dust, an iron
oxide, gives the planet its reddish cast. Mars shares similarities with Earth: It
is rocky, has mountains and valleys, and storm systems ranging from Mars researchers are
localized tornadolike dust devils to planetengulfing dust storms. It snows on focusing both Earth
based and planet
Mars. And Mars harbors water ice. Scientists think it was once wet and orbiting sensors to
warm, though today it’s cold and desertlike. better understand
sources of methane
on the red planet.
Mars' atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to exist on the surface for any
Image
length of time. Scientists think ancient Mars would have had the conditions
Credit: Space
to support life, and there is hope that signs of past life — possibly even Telescope Science
present biology — may exist on the Red Planet. Institute
Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye
Named for: Roman god of war
Diameter: 4,217 miles (6,787 km)
Orbit: 687 Earth days
Day: Just more than one Earth day (24 hours, 37 minutes)
Related:
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Jupiter MORE
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The fifth planet from the sun, Jupiter is huge and is the most massive planet
in our solar system. It’s a mostly gaseous world, mostly hydrogen and
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helium. Its swirling clouds are colorful due to different types of trace gases. A Closeup of Jupiter's
big feature is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm which has raged for Great Red Spot as
seen by a Voyager
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hundreds of years. Jupiter has a strong magnetic field, and with dozens of spacecraft.
moons, it looks a bit like a miniature solar system. Credit: NASA/JPL
Caltech
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Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye
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Named for: Ruler of the Roman gods
Diameter: 86,881 miles (139,822 km)
Orbit: 11.9 Earth years
Day: 9.8 Earth hours
Related:
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Jupiter Pictures
NASA Solar System Exploration: Jupiter
Saturn
The sixth planet from the sun is known most for its rings. When Galileo
Galilei first studied Saturn in the early 1600s, he thought it was an object
with three parts. Not knowing he was seeing a planet with rings, the stumped The shadow of
astronomer entered a small drawing — a symbol with one large circle and Saturn's moon Mimas
dips onto the planet's
two smaller ones — in his notebook, as a noun in a sentence describing his rings and straddles
discovery. More than 40 years later, Christiaan Huygens proposed that they the Cassini Division
were rings. The rings are made of ice and rock. Scientists are not yet sure in this natural color
image taken as
how they formed. The gaseous planet is mostly hydrogen and helium. It has Saturn approaches
numerous moons. its August 2009
equinox.
TECH SPACEFLIGHT SCIENCE & ASTRONOMY SEARCH FOR LIFE SKYWATC
Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye Credit:
NASA/JPL/Space
Named for: Roman god of agriculture Science Institute
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Diameter: 74,900 miles (120,500 km)
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Orbit: 29.5 Earth years
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Day: About 10.5 Earth hours
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Uranus
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The seventh planet from the sun, Uranus is an oddball. It’s the only giant
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planet whose equator is nearly at right angles to its orbit — it basically orbits
on its side. Astronomers think the planet collided with some other planetsize
object long ago, causing the tilt. The tilt causes extreme seasons that last
20plus years, and the sun beats down on one pole or the other for 84 Earth
Nearinfrared views
years. Uranus is about the same size as Neptune. Methane in the of Uranus reveal its
atmosphere gives Uranus its bluegreen tint. It has numerous moons and otherwise faint ring
faint rings. system, highlighting
the extent to which
the planet is tilted.
Discovery: 1781 by William Herschel (was thought previously to be a
Credit: Lawrence
star) Sromovsky, (Univ.
WisconsinMadison),
Named for: Personification of heaven in ancient myth Keck Observatory
Diameter: 31,763 miles (51,120 km)
Orbit: 84 Earth years
Day: 18 Earth hours
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Uranus Pictures
NASA Solar System Exploration: Uranus
Neptune
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The eighth planet from the sun, Neptune is known for strong winds —
sometimes faster than the speed of sound. Neptune is far out and cold. The
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planet is more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth. It has a rocky
5987 Neptune’s winds
travel at more than
core. Neptune was the first planet to be predicted to exist by using math,
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before it was detected. Irregularities in the orbit of Uranus led French the fastest planetary
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astronomer Alexis Bouvard to suggest some other might be exerting a winds in the solar
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gravitational tug. German astronomer Johann Galle used calculations to help system.
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find Neptune in a telescope. Neptune is about 17 times as massive as Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL
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Discovery: 1846
Named for: Roman god of water
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Diameter: 30,775 miles (49,530 km)
Orbit: 165 Earth years
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Day: 19 Earth hours
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Once the ninth planet from the sun, Pluto is unlike other planets in many Pluto and its moons
respects. It is smaller than Earth's moon. Its orbit carries it inside the orbit of orbit the sun near the
edge of our solar
Neptune and then way out beyond that orbit. From 1979 until early 1999, system. Learn all
Pluto had actually been the eighth planet from the sun. Then, on Feb. 11, about Pluto's weirdly
1999, it crossed Neptune's path and once again became the solar system's eccentric orbit, four
moons and more in
most distant planet — until it was demoted to dwarf planet status. Pluto will this Space.com
stay beyond Neptune for 228 years. Pluto’s orbit is tilted to the main plane of infographic.
the solar system — where the other planets orbit — by 17.1 degrees. It’s a Credit:
SPACE.com/Karl Tate
cold, rocky world with only a very ephemeral atmosphere. NASA's New
Horizons mission performed history's first flyby of the Pluto system on July
14, 2015. [Related: New Horizons' Pluto Flyby: Latest News, Images
and Video]
Discovery: 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh
Named for: Roman god of the underworld, Hades
Diameter: 1,430 miles (2,301 km)
Orbit: 248 Earth years
TECH SPACEFLIGHT SCIENCE & ASTRONOMY SEARCH FOR LIFE SKYWATC
Day: 6.4 Earth day
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More Pluto Facts 762
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NASA Solar System Exploration: Dwarf Planets
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Planet Nine
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Planet Nine orbits the sun at a distance that is 20 times farther out than the orbit of Neptune. (The
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orbit of Neptune is 2.7 billion miles from the sun at its closest point.) The strange world's orbit is
about 600 times farther from the sun than the Earth's orbit is from the star.
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Scientists have not actually seen Planet Nine directly. Its existence was inferred by its gravitational
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effects on other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region at the fringe of the solar system that is home to
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icy objects left over from the birth of the sun and planets.
'Planet Nine': Facts About the Mysterious Solar System World (Infographic)
Scientists Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin at the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena described the evidence for Planet Nine in a study published in the Astronomical
Journal. The research is based on mathematical models and computer simulations using
observations of six other smaller Kuiper Belt Objects with orbits that aligned in a similar matter.
Additional reporting by Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor.
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