Planetary science

Planetary science is the science of planets or planetary systems, including the Earth and our solar system. Planets and planetary systems including the central stars are the most important foundation for life to be generated and sustained. Any search for extraterrestrial lifeforms would focus on finding a planet, bearing air and water and orbiting around a star. Whether the Earth is a special planet formed almost miraculously fit for life or there are many Earth-like plants around other stars has been a long-pursued question. Planetary science may eventually be able to give an answer to this question.

Planetary science mainly originated from a subfield of astronomy which deals with celestial bodies inside our solar system. Unlike the mainstream astronomy which mainly deals with gas and plasma, planetary science deals with solid materials, and thus expanded its field by incorporating an interdisciplinary approach. Planetary science draws from diverse sciences and may be considered a part of the Earth sciences, or more logically, as its parent field because the Earth is also a planet.

Research tends to be done by a combination of astronomical observations, space exploration (particularly unmanned space missions), examinations of meteorites and interplanetary dust particles, experiments using those planetary materials or simulants, theory and modeling, and considerable use of computer simulation.

Planetary science studies objects ranging in size from nanometer-size crystals to gas giants, their composition, dynamics, and history.

Terminology

When the discipline concerns itself with a celestial body in particular, a specialised term is used, as shown in the table below (only Heliology, Earth science (synonymous with geoscience), Selenology, and Areology are currently in common use):

Body	Term	Source of root in term
Sun	Heliology	Greek Helios
Mercury	Hermeology	Greek Hermes
Venus	Cytherology	Greek Cythera
Earth	Earth science (geoscience): e.g., geology	Greek Gaia
Moon	Selenology	Greek Selene
Mars	Areology	Greek Ares
Jupiter	Zenology	Greek Zeus
Saturn	Kronology	Greek Chronos
Uranus	Uranology	Greek/Latin Uranus
Neptune	Poseidology	Greek Poseidon
Pluto	Hadeology	Greek Hades

Basic Concepts

• Asteroid
• Brown dwarfs
• Comets
• Earthquake
• Equatorial bulge
• Extrasolar planets
• Gas giant planets
• Icy moons
• Kuiper belt
• Magnetosphere
• Planet
• Planetary differentiation
• Planetary system
• the Pluto debate
• Precession
• Solar-terrestrial interaction
• Space weather
• Star system
• Sun
• Synchronous rotation
• Super Jupiter
• Terrestrial planets

Template:Astro-stub Template:Geol-stub

See also

• Astrogeology
• Planetary habitability

bs:Planetarne nauke cs:Planetologie de:Planetologie fr:Planétologie id:Ilmu planet is:Reikistjörnufræði it:Planetologia nl:Planetologie ja:惑星科学 pl:Planetologia pt:Planetologia sk:Planetológia sl:Planetologija sr:Планетарне науке fi:Planeettatiede

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