Planet | Definition, Characteristics, & Facts (2024)

planet, (from Greek planētes, “wanderers”), broadly, any relatively large natural body that revolves in an orbit around the Sun or around some other star and that is not radiating energy from internal nuclear fusion reactions. In addition to the above description, some scientists impose additional constraints regarding characteristics such as size (e.g., the object should be more than about 1,000 km [600 miles] across, or a little larger than the largest known asteroid, Ceres), shape (it should be large enough to have been squeezed by its own gravity into a sphere—i.e., roughly 700 km [435 miles] across, depending on its density), or mass (it must have a mass insufficient for its core to have experienced even temporary nuclear fusion). As the term is applied to bodies in Earth’s solar system, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is charged by the scientific community with classifying astronomical objects, lists eight planets orbiting the Sun; in order of increasing distance, they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto also was listed as a planet until 2006. Until the close of the 20th century, the only planets to be recognized were components of Earth’s solar system. At that time astronomers confirmed that other stars have objects that appear to be planets in orbit around them.

Planets of the solar system

The idea of what exactly constitutes a planet of the solar system has been traditionally the product of historical and cultural consensus. Ancient sky gazers applied the term planet to the seven celestial bodies that were observed to move appreciably against the background of the apparently fixed stars. These included the Sun and Earth’s Moon, as well as the five planets in the modern sense—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—that were readily visible as celestial wanderers before the invention of the telescope. After the idea of an Earth-centred cosmos was dispelled (see Copernican system) and more distinctions were made about the nature and movement of objects in the sky, the term planet was reserved only for those larger bodies that orbited the Sun. When the giant bodies Uranus and Neptune were discovered in 1781 and 1846, respectively, their obvious kinship with the other known planets left little question regarding their addition to the planetary ranks. So also, at first, appeared to be the case for Pluto when, during a concerted search for a ninth planet, it was observed in 1930 as a seemingly lone object beyond the orbit of Neptune. In later decades, however, Pluto’s planetary status became increasingly questioned by astronomers who noted that its tiny size, unusual orbital characteristics, and composition of ice and rock made it an anomaly among the other recognized planets. After many more Pluto-sized and smaller icy objects were found orbiting beyond Neptune beginning in the 1990s, astronomers recognized that Pluto, far from being unique in its part of the solar system, is almost undoubtedly one of the larger and nearer pieces of this debris, known collectively as the Kuiper belt, that is left over from the formation of the planets. (See also planetesimal.)

In August 2006, after intense debate over the question of Pluto’s planetary status, the general assembly of the IAU approved a definition for a solar system planet that excluded Pluto. At the same time, it defined a new distinct class of objects called dwarf planets, for which Pluto qualified. Following the IAU proclamations, many scientists protested the definitions, considering them flawed and unscientific and calling for their reconsideration.

According to the 2006 IAU decision, for a celestial body to be a planet of the solar system, it must meet three conditions: it must be in orbit around the Sun, have been molded by its own gravity into a round or nearly round shape, and have “cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit,” meaning that its mass must be large enough for its gravity to have removed rocky and icy debris from its orbital vicinity. Pluto failed on the third requirement because it orbits partially within, and is considered to be part of, the Kuiper belt.

To be a dwarf planet under the IAU definition, the object must meet the first two conditions described above; in addition, it must not have cleared its neighbourhood, and it must not be a moon of another body. Pluto falls into this category, as do the asteroid Ceres and the large Kuiper belt object Eris, which was discovered in 2005 beyond the orbit of Pluto. By contrast, Charon, by virtue of its being a moon of Pluto, is not a dwarf planet, even though its diameter is more than half that of Pluto. The ranks of dwarf planets will likely be expanded as other objects known or yet to be discovered are determined to meet the conditions of the definition.

In June 2008 the IAU created a new category, plutoids, within the dwarf planet category. Plutoids are dwarf planets that are farther from the Sun than Neptune; that is, they are the largest objects in the Kuiper belt. Two of the dwarf planets, Pluto and Eris, are plutoids; Ceres, because of its location in the asteroid belt, is not.

Of the eight currently recognized planets of the solar system, the inner four, from Mercury to Mars, are called terrestrial planets; those from Jupiter to Neptune are called giant planets or Jovian planets. Between these two main groups is a belt of numerous small bodies called asteroids. After Ceres and other larger asteroids were discovered in the early 19th century, the bodies in this class were also referred to as minor planets or planetoids, but the term asteroid is now used most widely.

Planets of other stars

The planets and other objects that circle the Sun are thought to have formed when part of an interstellar cloud of gas and dust collapsed under its own gravitational attraction and formed a disk-shaped nebula. Further compression of the disk’s central region formed the Sun, while the gas and dust left behind in the midplane of the surrounding disk eventually coalesced to form ever-larger objects and, ultimately, the planets. (See solar system: Origin of the solar system.) Astronomers have long wondered if this process of planetary formation could have accompanied the birth of stars other than the Sun. In the glare of their parent stars, however, such small, dim objects would not be easy to detect directly in images made with telescopes from Earth’s vicinity. Instead, astronomers concentrated on attempting to observe them indirectly through the gravitational effects they exert on their parent stars. After decades of searching for such extrasolar planets, astronomers in the early 1990s indirectly identified three planets circling a pulsar (i.e., a rapidly spinning neutron star) called PSR B1257+12. The first discovery of a planet revolving around a star more like the Sun came in 1995 with the announcement of the existence of a massive planet orbiting the star 51 Pegasi. In the first 15 years after these initial discoveries, about 200 planets around other stars were known, and in 2005 astronomers obtained the first direct infrared images of what were interpreted to be extrasolar planets. In size these objects range from a fraction of the mass of Jupiter to more than a dozen times its mass. Astronomers have yet to develop a rigorous, generally accepted definition of planet that will successfully accommodate extrasolar planets and distinguish them from bodies that are more starlike in character (e.g., brown dwarfs).