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The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
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 ...
In antiquity, it was believed that the Sun and all the planets orbit the Earth. Thus the Sun was categorised as a planet. Following the acceptance of the Copernican model, it was recognized that the planets (including Earth) orbit the Sun, and it was no longer regarded as a planet. Subsequent discoveries show that the Sun is a star. [5] [6] [7 ...
Its orbit revealed that it was a new planet, Uranus, the first ever discovered telescopically. [20] Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres in 1801, a small world between Mars and Jupiter. It was considered another planet, but after subsequent discoveries of other small worlds in the same region, it and the others were eventually reclassified as ...
These lists contain the Sun, the planets, dwarf planets, many of the larger small Solar System bodies (which includes the asteroids), all named natural satellites, and a number of smaller objects of historical or scientific interest, such as comets and near-Earth objects.
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 ...
There are eight planets within the Solar System; planets outside of the solar system are also known as exoplanets. Artist's concept of the potentially habitable exoplanet Kepler-186f As of 27 February 2025, there are 5,839 confirmed exoplanets in 4,359 planetary systems , with 979 systems having more than one planet . [ 1 ]
Eventually, the Sun will likely expand sufficiently to overwhelm the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, and possibly Earth) but not the outer planets, including Jupiter and Saturn. Afterward, the Sun would be reduced to the size of a white dwarf , and the outer planets and their moons would continue orbiting this diminutive solar remnant.