planet

Did You Know?

Planet goes back to ancient Greek planēt- (literally, "wanderer"), which is derived from "planasthai," a Greek verb which means "to wander." The name "planet" was originally applied to any of seven visible celestial bodies which appeared to move independently of the fixed stars - the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In the 17th century, "planet" began to be used specifically of the rocky or gaseous bodies that orbit around the sun - a definition which excluded the moon and, obviously, the sun, but included the Earth and, as they were discovered, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union developed a narrower definition of "planet," effectively demoting Pluto to the status of a "dwarf planet," a celestial body that is spherical and orbits the sun but is not large enough to disturb other objects from its orbit.