subject: The Order Of Planets [print this page] The name of solar system is derived because planets, moons, dwarf planets and various celestial bodies all orbit around the sun. The solar system comprises of eight planets, various satellites and other celestial bodies and the Sun of course.
Starting with the one closest to the Sun, the order of the eight planets is Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The dwarf planets are Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Ceres and Pluto.
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun but it is not the hottest despite its closeness to the Sun. Venus gets that honor. Mercury has almost no atmosphere, although its temperature can reach to 450C when facing the Sun but the temperature drops to -170C during night.
Order of the planets according to their discovery
Bright planet like Venus was observed back in early times. However, the earliest recorded observations were of Mercury. Greek astronomers had thought the planet to be two separate objects. Mars have been always seen by naked eye. The Pythagoras have been credited with the discovery of Venus. Galileo was the first person to observe the moons around Jupiter and also Saturn in 1610 through a telescope. William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781. Later, Galle and dArrest discovered Neptune in 1846. Predictions were made from calculations based on the positions of Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter. It is not possible to determine the discovery of Earth. In the 16th century, humans realized that it was not the center of the universe but just another planet.
Order of planets according to size
The order of planets ranging from the largest size to the smallest are:
-Jupiter - 142 984 km at the equator
-Saturn - 120 536 km
-Uranus - 51 118 km
-Neptune - 49 532 km
-Earth - 12 756.3 km
-Venus - 12 103.6km
-Mars - 6 794 km
-Mercury - 4 880km
The difference is quite understandable as Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants while Neptune and Uranus are ice giants. Rest of the planets are smaller in size having surfaces of solid rocks. Jupiter is the largest of all, it is so huge that all the other planets could fit inside it.
Order of dwarf planets according to size
The dwarf planets ordered according to size from largest to smallest are:
-Eris - 2400 km at the diameter
-Pluto - 2306 km
-Makemake - 1500 km
-Haumea - 1150 km
-Ceres - 974.6 km
Order of the planets according to the numbers of moons
Moon does not only revolve around the Earth, following is a list according to the number of the moons:
-Jupiter - the largest number of moons with 63 identified
