Solar System Planets
The solar system is the collection of celestial bodies including the sun, planets, and other objects that orbit the sun. It is the house of Earth, the third planet from the Sun. The solar system also includes dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other objects. The Sun is the largest object in the solar system and is located at the center. The planets orbit the Sun in a path called the ecliptic plane. The solar system is located in the Milky Way galaxy.
There are eight planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto is also considered a planet by some, but the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified it as a “dwarf planet” in 2006. The IAU defines a planet as a celestial body that orbits the Sun, is spherical in shape, and is defined as As its debris orbit. Under this definition, Pluto does not meet the criteria for planet classification because it shares its orbit with other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of the Solar System beyond Neptune that is populated by small, icy bodies.
How many planets are there in the solar system?
Here is a list of the eight planets in our solar system, along with their average distances from the Sun in kilometers.
- Mercury – 57.9 million km
- Venus – 108.2 million km
- Land – 149.6 million km
- Mars – 227.9 million km
- Jupiter – 778.6 million km
- Saturn – 1.429 billion km
- Uranus – 2.871 billion km
- Neptune – 4.498 billion km
Pluto, classified as a “dwarf planet”, is located at an average distance of 5.9 billion kilometers from the Sun.
Why is Pluto no longer a planet?
Pluto was reclassified as a “dwarf planet” by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006. The IAU defines a planet as a celestial body that orbits the Sun, is spherical in shape, and has cleared its orbit of debris. Under this definition, Pluto does not meet the criteria for planet classification because it shares its orbit with other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of the Solar System beyond Neptune that is populated by small, icy bodies.
Before its reclassification, Pluto had been considered a planet since its discovery in the 1930s. However, the discovery of other objects in the Kuiper Belt that are similar in size to Pluto has led to the question of whether Pluto should still be considered a planet. After much debate, the IAU finally decided to reclassify Pluto as a “dwarf planet,” a new type of celestial body that is smaller than a planet but larger than an asteroid or comet.