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In 1952, science fiction writer James Blish coined the term gas giant [3] and it was used to refer to the large non-terrestrial planets of the Solar System.However, since the late 1940s [4] the compositions of Uranus and Neptune have been understood to be significantly different from those of Jupiter and Saturn.
Parts-per-million chart of the relative mass distribution of the Solar System, each cubelet denoting 2 × 10 24 kg. This article includes a list of the most massive known objects of the Solar System and partial lists of smaller objects by observed mean radius. These lists can be sorted according to an object's radius and mass and, for the most ...
Although there are many icy objects in the Solar System, none of them qualify as planets under the IAU definition of planet.However, most planetary-mass moons are ice-rock (e.g. Ganymede, Callisto, Enceladus, Titan, and Triton) or even primarily ice (e.g. Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, and Iapetus) and so qualify as ice planets under geophysical definitions of the term.
A giant planet, sometimes referred to as a jovian planet (Jove being another name for the Roman god Jupiter), is a diverse type of planet much larger than Earth. Giant planets are usually primarily composed of low- boiling point materials ( volatiles ), rather than rock or other solid matter, but massive solid planets can also exist.
Most known large icy moons belong to giant planets, whose orbits lie beyond the Solar System's frost line; the remainder (such as Charon and Dysnomia) formed around dwarf planets such as Pluto and Eris, typically in large impacts not unlike the impact thought to have formed Earth's moon. In the case of icy gas giant satellites, an additional ...
Of the Solar System's eight planets and its nine most likely dwarf planets, six planets and seven dwarf planets are known to be orbited by at least 300 natural satellites, or moons. At least 19 of them are large enough to be gravitationally rounded; of these, all are covered by a crust of ice except for Earth's Moon and Jupiter's Io. [1]
The following is a list of Solar System objects by orbit, ordered by increasing distance from the Sun. Most named objects in this list have a diameter of 500 km or more. The Sun, a spectral class G2V main-sequence star; The inner Solar System and the terrestrial planets. 2021 PH27; Mercury. Mercury-crossing minor planets; Venus. Venus-crossing ...
Planets whose orbits lie within the orbit of Earth. [nb 1] Mercury and Venus: Inner planet: A planet in the Solar System that have orbits smaller than the asteroid belt. [nb 2] Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars: Outer planet: A planet in the Solar System beyond the asteroid belt, and hence refers to the gas giants. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune ...