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The adjectival forms of the names of astronomical bodies are not always easily predictable. Attested adjectival forms of the larger bodies are listed below, along with the two small Martian moons; in some cases they are accompanied by their demonymic equivalents, which denote hypothetical inhabitants of these bodies.
Francesco Fontana's drawing of the supposed satellite(s) of Venus. Woodcuts from Fontana's work. The fringes of light around Venus are produced by optical effects. Neith is a hypothetical natural satellite of Venus reportedly sighted by Giovanni Cassini in 1672 and by several other astronomers in following years. It was 'observed' up to 30 ...
Venera 3, launched in 1966, became humanity's first probe and lander to reach and impact another celestial body other than the Moon, but could not return data as it crashed into the surface of Venus. In 1967, Venera 4 was launched and successfully deployed science experiments in the Venusian atmosphere before impacting.
According to the IAU's explicit count, there are eight planets in the Solar System; four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) and four giant planets, which can be divided further into two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). When excluding the Sun, the four giant planets account for more than ...
Nineteen moons are large enough to be round, and two, Titan and Triton, have substantial atmospheres The number of moons discovered in each year until November 2019 Mercury , the smallest and innermost planet, has no moons, or at least none that can be detected to a diameter of 1.6 km (1.0 mi). [ 2 ]
The Sun, planets, moons and dwarf planets (true color, size to scale, distances not to scale) The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Solar System: Solar System – gravitationally bound system comprising the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly.
In the astronomical literature it was simply referred to as "the satellite of Neptune". Later, the second known moon, Nereid, was named by its discoverer in 1949, Gerard P. Kuiper, soon after its discovery. Current IAU practice for newly discovered Neptunian moons is to accord with these first two choices by naming them after Greek sea deities.
In 1966, the Moon became the first Solar System body beyond Earth to be orbited by an artificial satellite , followed by Mars in 1971 , Venus in 1975 , Jupiter in 1995 , the asteroid Eros in 2000 (NEAR Shoemaker), Saturn in 2004 (Cassini–Huygens), and Mercury and Vesta in 2011 (MESSENGER and Dawn respectively).