If you are a curious person, then you will probably be interested to know the answer to the question of how many planets are in the solar system. Fierce debate has been going on between astronomers for many years on this subject. Not so long ago, a person who was interested in the planets in the solar system, could without hesitation declare - there are 9. At the moment, this is not so, because Pluto has been removed from the list. Only seventy-odd years he managed to keep this proud title. Let's see how many planets are in our solar system now.
There are 8 of them at the moment, of course, they revolve around one of the brightest stars in the galaxy - the Sun.
They are divided into two groups - four so-called internal ones, located close to the star, and the same number of external ones - which are quite distant from it, but large in size and are considered gas giants.
First we will talk about the first.
The smallest planet in the system is Mercury. It is closer to the Sun than all the others, but it has no satellites at all. The surface is dotted with a huge number of craters of different diameters. There is no atmosphere.
The next one, which will attract people who are interested in how many planets in the solar system is Venus. Slightly inferior to our native Earth in size, satellites are absolutely absent.
Then our planet is the only one on which the existence of life is known for certain. It is on Earth that the atmosphere is so peculiar that it enables the very existence of living beings.
The next on the list is, of course, Mars, the red planet on which the next American Mars rover landed recently. A favorite place of science fiction writers, and scientists in general.
Then follows the largest object after the Sun in our system. It is many times larger than any planet in our system. It has a huge number of satellites - as many as sixty-three. The largest of them is Ganymede, it is even more massive than Mercury. Jupiter is also notable for its large red spot - according to scientists, a huge storm, which has been known for more than three centuries.
Then comes Saturn - the second largest in the system. Famous for its rings, consisting of various particles. It also has many satellites - 62 pieces.
The next one on the list is Uranus, which in combination is the coldest of all planets located in the system. Firstly, it is known for revolving around the sun not like normal planets, but rather as it is located on its side. The minimum temperature on this planet is –224 degrees.
After Uranus was discovered at one time, scientists thought they knew for sure how many planets there were in the solar system. However, after all the distortions in its orbit were taken into account, it became clear that there were other celestial bodies of a similar size.
Therefore, although somewhat later, in 1846, after much research, Neptune was discovered. At the moment, it is the planet farthest from the Sun in our system. It was discovered by a curious method - scientists determined the location before they saw it through a telescope. This was done using conventional mathematical calculations. It is known that it has a total of thirteen satellites. It is blue - but this is not due to the presence of water, as is the case with our planet, but to large accumulations of methane in the atmosphere.
Let's hope that a fairly detailed answer to the question of how many planets in the solar system we have given. Of course, I would like to include Pluto in this list - but he, as already mentioned at the beginning of this article, unfortunately, dropped out of the official lists.
Although it makes absolutely no sense to pay attention to changes in scientific views - all the planets are still in their places, no matter what the concepts changed by scientists say.