![]() Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and is the smallest of the eight planets being only slightly larger than our moon. Mercury image: NASA/JHUAPL Venus image: NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth image: NASA/Apollo 17 crew Mars image: ESA/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA The terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, sized to scale. ![]() These types of planets also have few moons, a molten core and can have surface features like valleys, mountains and volcanoes. Terrestrial planets are planets with a solid surface, often made up of rock or metals. Astronomers who use the geophysical definition of a planet would also include the Moon as a terrestrial planet. Terrestrial planets include the four closest planets to the Sun located between the Sun and the asteroid belt Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Terrestrial and Giant Planets in order from the Sun Terrestrial Planets Johns Hopkins APL/Mike Yakovlev Planet Order from the SunĪll planets and dwarf planets recognized by the IAU will be included and separated by three categories of planets Terrestrial, Giant and Dwarf planets. The IAU currently recognizes five dwarf planets:īased on the geophysical definition of a planet, there are several satellite and dwarf planets in the solar system and likely more that haven’t been discovered. Many professionals in the field also criticize the IAU definition of trying to limit the number of planets with the most recent change to the definition, as it was ultimately responsible for Pluto being removed as the ninth planet and re-labeled a dwarf planet. Stern’s definition thus counts dwarf planets and planetary-mass moons as planets. When compared to the IAU planet definition, planetary scientist Alan Stern’s 2018 definition excludes the first point (that a planet be in orbit around the sun) and the third point (that a planet has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit).
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