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Earth: 3rd Planet: Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the subject of historical misconception for centuries. [4] [5] Earth was never formally 'discovered' because it was never an unrecognized entity by humans. However, its shared identity with other bodies as a "planet" is a historically recent discovery.
Thus, the Sun occupies 0.00001% (1 part in 10 7) of the volume of a sphere with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, whereas Earth's volume is roughly 1 millionth (10 −6) that of the Sun. Jupiter, the largest planet, is 5.2 AU from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU; 44,000 mi), whereas the most distant planet, Neptune, is 30 AU ...
Earth orbits the Sun, making Earth the third-closest planet to the Sun and part of the inner Solar System. Earth's average orbital distance is about 150 million km (93 million mi), which is the basis for the astronomical unit (AU) and is equal to roughly 8.3 light minutes or 380 times Earth's distance to the Moon .
1501 – Indian astronomer Nilakantha Somayaji proposes a universe in which the planets orbit the Sun, but the Sun orbits the Earth. [61] c. 1514 – Nicolaus Copernicus states his heliocentric theory in Commentariolus. [62] [63] [64] 1522 – First circumnavigation of the world by Magellan-Elcano expedition shows that the Earth is, in effect ...
Kerala-based astronomer Nilakantha Somayaji proposed a geoheliocentric system, in which the planets circled the Sun while the Sun, Moon and stars orbited the Earth. Finally, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus developed in full a system called Copernican heliocentrism, in which the planets and the Earth orbit the Sun, and the Moon orbits the ...
Jupiter was the first of the Sun's planets to form, and its inward migration during the primordial phase of the Solar System affected much of the formation history of the other planets. Jupiter's atmosphere consists of 76% hydrogen and 24% helium by mass, with a denser interior.
The first satellites designed for long term observation of the Sun from interplanetary space were NASA's Pioneers 6, 7, 8 and 9, which were launched between 1959 and 1968. These probes orbited the Sun at a distance similar to that of Earth, and made the first detailed measurements of the solar wind and the solar magnetic field.
Solar System – gravitationally bound system comprising the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest eight are the planets (including Earth), with the remainder being significantly smaller objects, such as dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies.