Wiktionary Appendix: Planets
From open-dictionary.com - the free dictionary.
The planets of the solar system are those nine bodies traditionally labelled as such: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
An ever growing list of planets around other stars can be found in The Extra-Solar Planets Catalog or California & Carnegie Planet Search.
Other classes of objects not considered major planets are found in the Asteroid Belt, Kuiper Belt, and Oört Cloud.
Attributes of Major Planets
All attributes below are measured relative to the Earth:
| Planet | Equatorial diameter |
Mass | Orbital Radius |
Year | Day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 0.382 | 0.06 | 0.38 | 0.241 | 58.6 |
| Venus | 0.949 | 0.82 | 0.72 | 0.615 | -243 |
| Earth | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Mars | 0.53 | 0.11 | 1.52 | 1.88 | 1.03 |
| Jupiter | 11.2 | 318 | 5.20 | 11.86 | 0.414 |
| Saturn | 9.41 | 95 | 9.54 | 29.46 | 0.426 |
| Uranus | 3.98 | 14.6 | 19.22 | 84.01 | 0.718 |
| Neptune | 3.81 | 17.2 | 30.06 | 164.79 | 0.671 |
| Pluto* | 0.24 | 0.0017 | 39.5 | 248.5 | 6.5 |
| Sedna | 0.1 | 0.001 | 90 | 11487 | 32 |
*Soon after its discovery in 1930, Pluto was classified a planet by the International Astronomical Union. However, based on additional discoveries since that time, some astronomers have suggested Pluto should be classified as a Kuiper Belt object.
External links
- Wikipedia article on the solar system
- The Nine Planets
