what are the 8 planets?

Question

im stuck on some homework what are the 8 planets?

Answer 1

In the time it took you to write this question, you could have done a web search and found your answer.

Of course, I could have also told you the answer in the time it took me to write the above. But I think you'd benefit more from looking it up yourself. :^)

Answer 2

I am a bit uneasy about the word "the" in your question, as if that's it!

I don't need to repeat all those correct answers. But the most interesting thing to bear in mind here, is that we don't actually know what is in our solar system. (We don't really even know how big it is - were it finishes).

As recently as the 1950s it was assumed there were about 30 moons, for example. "The total now is at least ninety, about a third of which have been found in just the last ten years."¹

So there could be more planets! Many more. That's: in OUR solar system.

As I said, we don't really know where the solar system finishes, there is without a doubt, plenty of room to hide some more away. But it is generally assumed that the edge of the solar system is an area called the Oort cloud - certainly not Pluto/Charon.

The distance from Earth to the Sun is one Astronomical Unit (AU) in solar system measures. The distance from Earth to Pluto is about 40 AUs. While the approximate centre of the Oort cloud (which, itself is about 2 light years 'deep') is an absolutely incomprehensible 50,000 (fifty thousand) AUs from Earth! (50,000 times as distant as the Sun).

If we were to take a trip to this 'edge' of our solar system at the speed of the fastest ever known human-made object say, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which was launched towards Pluto early last year, we would not reach Pluto for another 10 years or so. But by then we would only have just begun our journey:

"Pluto may be the last object marked on schoolroom charts, but the system doesn't end there. In fact, it isn't even close, we won't reach the Oort cloud for another - I'm so sorry about this - ten thousand years."¹ So far on this trip, as we wiz past dear little Pluto, we are only one-fifty-thousandth of the way there.

So you will agree, we can't possibly really know at all, how many planets are lurking out there, between our cosy little cluster of 8 planets deep down here at the very centre of our "inner" solar system, and cited in the other answers, and these impossibly far-off outer realms.

Best of luck with the homework - it's a great subject.

(Celtic_R, It's 'astronomy', which is one of the sciences. "Astrology" is one of the mumbo-jumbos.)

Answer 3

We have 8 planets and 3 dwarf planets now (when I was in school, it was just 9 planets):

The planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

The dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, and Eris.

The link below also has the definitions of what is actually a planet.

Answer 4

scientists are still working out how to define what is a planet, a few now have been reclassed as dwarf planets, rather than moons or in the case of pluto, as a planet.
i was brought up with having 9 planets but as pluto is now a dwarf planet then the 8 would be venus, earth, mars, mercury, saturn, neptune, uranus, jupiter.

Answer 5

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Answer 6

The eight planets now recognized by the IAU are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Answer 7

I used to remember it using the mnemomic My Very Educated mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas for
Mecury,
Venus,
Earth,
Mars,
Jupiter,
Saturn,
Uranus,
Neptune
and Pluto. But now that Pluto is no longer technically a planet it stops at Neptune. I guess it can be rearranged to My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nuggets!

Answer 8

This is an easy 2-pointer...

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.


And to think people said astrology would never pay off!



(in all fairness; the Pluto thing is history now - everyone knows it by now.)

Answer 9

Further to above answers, the sun is not a planet but a star (just a very close star), and all planets discussed above relate to our solar system only. Planets have also been found in other solar systems.

Answer 10

From the sun outwards: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto has been downgraded to a planetoid.

Answer 11

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune