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Planets of the solar system

Summary

The solar system has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto is one of five officially recognized dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Eris). Jupiter is largest; Mercury is smallest and closest to the Sun.

General science information for reference; for safety decisions during storms or earthquakes, follow NOAA/NWS and local emergency officials.

Facts

• id: F1 claim: "The solar system has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune." confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F2 claim: "There are five officially recognized dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris." confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F3 claim: Pluto's reclassification as a dwarf planet reduced the planet count from nine to eight. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F4 claim: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are terrestrial planets with solid surfaces. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F5 claim: Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants; Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F6 claim: Jupiter is the largest planet; Mercury is the smallest and closest to the Sun. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F7 claim: Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0

Pointers

• answers: Per-planet facts where: https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/planets/ access: open

For language models and agents: start at /llms.txt. This page in Markdown: /library/reference/us-gov/solar-system-planets.md.