A 

planet is a large object that orbits a star. To be a planet, an object

must be massive enough for gravity to have squeezed it into
a spherical, or round, shape,. It must also be large enough
for gravity to have swept up any rocky or icy objects from its path,
or orbit, around the star.

Scientists believe planets begin to form when a dense cloud

of dust and gas, called a nebula, spins around a newly
formed star. Gradually, gravity causes the bits of matter in
the nebula to clump together. Slowly, these clumps accumulate and
grow. Eventually, these clumps become planets.

Earth is one of eight planets that circle the star we call the sun.

Together, the sun, the planets, and smaller objects such
as moons make up our solar system.

The four planets closest to the sun—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

—are called terrestrial planets. These planets are solid and rocky
like Earth (terra means “earth” in Latin). Earth is the largest of the
four terrestrial planets, and Mercury is the smallest. All are surrounded
by a layer of gas, or atmosphere. Their atmospheres vary in density
from Mercury’s extremely thin atmosphere to Venus’, which is thick
with clouds of sulfuric acid.

The four planets that are more distant from the sun—

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—are called gas
giants. Gas giants are huge compared with Earth, and they do not
have solid surfaces. They are big balls of gas. Jupiter and Saturn are
composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. Uranus and Neptune have
greater proportions of water vapor, ammonia, and methane. Each of
the four gas giants also has a ring system. A planet’s rings are made
of ice, dust, and small rocks. Saturn’s ring system is the largest.

Every planet except Mercury and Venus has at least one natural

satellite, or moon. A planet’s moon orbits it as it revolves around
the sun. Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus each have dozens of moons.
In addition to orbiting a star, planets also rotate, or spin, around
an axis. An axis is an invisible line that runs through the center of
a planet. One complete rotation is called a day. A day on Earth is
about 24 hours. A day on Jupiter takes only 9.8 hours. Venus has the
longest day of any planet in our solar system. It takes
243 Earth days for Venus to make a complete turn on its axis.

Unlike stars, planets do not experience nuclear fusion, the process of

combining tiny particles called atoms to release energy. Nuclear
fusion creates radiation (heat and light) and makes stars glow.
Because planets do not have nuclear fusion, they do not produce their
own light. Instead, they shine with light reflected from a star. When we
see planets in the night sky, such as Venus, the so-called
"Evening Star," we're seeing reflected sunlight.

Exoplanets

Because there are trillions of stars in the universe, there are very

likely billions of planets. But until the early 1990s, the only
known planets were in our solar system. Since then, however,
scientists have discovered more than 400 planets orbiting other stars.
These are called extrasolar planets, or exoplanets.

Exoplanets appear to be fairly small from our viewpoint

on Earth. Telescopes usually cannot observe exoplanets directly,
so astronomers have had to come up with methods to detect them.
One method astronomers use is to look for a slight wobble in a star’s
movement. This wobble is the result of the gravitational pull of a
nearby planet. Most of the exoplanets discovered so far
are gas giants.