Planet

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Physical / Universe / Planetary System / Planet

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Introduction¹

What is a Planet? (Space Place, NASA)

Dictionary

planet : any of the large bodies that revolve around a star — Webster

OneLook, Free Dictionary, Wiktionary

Thesaurus

Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords

Encyclopedia

Planet is an astronomical body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that

is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity,
is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and
has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.

The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, astrology, science, mythology, and religion. Several planets in the Solar System can be seen with the naked eye. These were regarded by many early cultures as divine, or as emissaries of deities. As scientific knowledge advanced, human perception of the planets changed, incorporating a number of disparate objects. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially adopted a resolution defining planets within the Solar System. This definition is controversial because it excludes many objects of planetary mass based on where or what they orbit. Although eight of the planetary bodies discovered before 1950 remain “planets” under the modern definition, some celestial bodies, such as Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta (each an object in the solar asteroid belt), and Pluto (the first trans-Neptunian object discovered), that were once considered planets by the scientific community, are no longer viewed as such. — Wikipedia

Dwarf planet is a planetary-mass object that is neither a true planet nor a natural satellite. That is, it is in direct orbit of a star, and is massive enough for its gravity to compress it into a hydrostatically equilibrious shape (usually a spheroid), but has not cleared the neighborhood of other material around its orbit. The term was adopted in 2006 as part of a three-way categorization of bodies orbiting the Sun, brought about by an increase in discoveries of objects farther away from the Sun than Neptune that rivaled Pluto in size, and finally precipitated by the discovery of an even more massive object, Eris. — Wikipedia

Planets (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)
Encyclopædia Britannica

Portal

Planets & Planetary Systems Internet Resources (Library of Congress)

Search

Planets (Wolfram Alpha)

Science

Planetary science or, more rarely, planetology, is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), moons, and planetary systems and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation, interrelations and history. It is a strongly interdisciplinary field, originally growing from astronomy and earth science, but which now incorporates many disciplines, including planetary geology (together with geochemistry and geophysics), cosmochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, hydrology, theoretical planetary science, glaciology, and exoplanetology. Allied disciplines include space physics, when concerned with the effects of the Sun on the bodies of the Solar System, and astrobiology. — Wikipedia

Planetary Science (NASA/JPL)

Exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Sun’s solar system. The first evidence of an exoplanet was noted as early as 1917, but was not recognized as such. However, the first scientific detection of an exoplanet was in 1988, although it was not confirmed to be an exoplanet until later in 2012. The first confirmed detection occurred in 1992. As of September 2018, there are 3,823 confirmed planets in 2,860 systems, with 632 systems having more than one planet. — Wikipedia

Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond Our Solar System (NASA)
Exoplanet Data Explorer (Exoplanet.org)
What Is an Exoplanet? (Space Place, NASA)
Extrasolar Planets (Ask an Astronomer, Cornell University)
Extrasolar Systems Internet Resources (Library of Congress)
Extrasolar Systems Internet Resources (Library of Congress)
Extrasolar Planets (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)
Exoplanets (Wolfram Alpha)

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Preservation

History

400 years, 7,500 words: A history of planetary science (Lauren Gold, Cornell Chronicle)

Quotation

Quotations Page

Library

WorldCat, Library of Congress, UPenn Online Books, Open Library

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Participation

Education

Planets and Dwarf Planets (Ask an Astronomer, Cornell University)

Course

Crash Course Astronomy (YouTube)

Physics and Chemistry of the Terrestrial Planets (MIT)
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Community

Organization

International Astronomical Union (IAU)
Minor Planet Center (International Astronomical Union)
The Planetary Society

News

Science News, AAAS EurekaAlert, Phys.org, NPR Archives

Book

ISBNdb

Government

NASA Planetary Science

Document

USA.gov

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Expression

Poem

OEDILF: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form

Music

Song Lyrics

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More News …

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Adventures

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Related

Here are links to pages about closely related subjects.

Knowledge Realm

Physical

“Fundamentals”
Law (Constant) Relativity
Force Gravity, Electromagnetism (Light, Color)
Matter (Microscope) Molecule, Atom (Periodic Table), Particle

“Space”
Universe (Astronomical Instrument)
Galaxy Milky Way, Andromeda
Planetary System Star, Brown Dwarf, Planet, Moon

Our Neighborhood
Solar System Sun
Terrestrial Planet Mercury, Venus, Earth (Moon), Mars
Asteroid Belt Ceres, Vesta
Jovian Planet Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Trans-Neptunian Object
Kuiper Belt Pluto, Haumea, Makemake
Scattered Disc Eris, Sedna, Planet X
Oort Cloud Etc. Scholz’s Star
Small Body Comet, Centaur, Asteroid

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Notes

1.   The resources on this page are are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma.