On October 31, 2007, the team reported the discovery of three extrasolar planets: WASP-3b, WASP-4b and WASP-5b.

In spite of this, the very large radio reflectors and improved amplifying techniques which are now becoming available should make it possible to observe the radio emission of most of the planets in a few years.

Since these electrons are moving like planets, you may wonder whether there is an atomic sun at the center of the atom.

They are grouped with the outer bodies — centaurs, Neptune trojans, and trans-Neptunian objects — as minor planets, which is the term preferred in astronomical circles.

There are millions of asteroids, many thought to be the shattered remnants of planetesimals, bodies within the young Sun ’ s solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets .< ref >

Although, as of 2009, none of the extrasolar planets detected by ground-based astrometry has been verified in subsequent studies, astrometry is expected to be more accurate in space missions that are not affected by the distorting effects of the Earth's atmosphere.

In particular, time intervals measured on the surface of the Earth ( terrestrial time, TT ) are not constant when compared to the motions of the planets: the terrestrial second ( TT ) appears to be longer in Northern Hemisphere winter and shorter in Northern Hemisphere summer when compared to the " planetary second " ( conventionally measured in barycentric dynamical time, TDB ).

Rockets are used for fireworks, weaponry, ejection seats, launch vehicles for artificial satellites, human spaceflight and exploration of other planets.

In Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels human colonies on distant planets maintain contact with earth and each other via hyperspatial needlecast, a technology which moves information "... so close to instantaneously that scientists are still arguing about the terminology ...".

Western astrology is founded on the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies such as the Sun, Moon, planets, which are analyzed by their movement through signs of the zodiac ( spatial divisions of the ecliptic ) and by their aspects ( angles ) relative to one another.

* In the computer game Escape Velocity: Nova, many planets that are part of the Auroran Empire have multiple arcologies on them.

Arcologies are so widespread that some planets, dubbed ' hive worlds ', are constructed entirely of hyperstructures.

* 1994 – The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.

The protagonists may also travel to places that are not of this earth, represented in the Dreamlands ( which can be accessed through dreams as well as being physically connected to the earth ), as well as travel to other planets or the voids of space.

Comets are assumed to orbit other stars, but they are far too small for all current methods of detecting extrasolar planets.

The five major planets are associated with and even named after the elements: Jupiter 木星 is Wood ( 木 ), Mars 火星 is Fire ( 火 ), Saturn 土星 is Earth ( 土 ), Venus 金星 is Metal ( 金 ), and Mercury 水星 is Water ( 水 ).

On other planets and moons that experience more-active surface geological processes, such as Earth, Venus, Mars, Europa, Io and Titan, visible impact craters are less common because they become eroded, buried or transformed by tectonics over time.

Complex-crater morphology on rocky planets appears to follow a regular sequence with increasing size: small complex craters with a central topographic peak are called central peak craters, for example Tycho ; intermediate-sized craters, in which the central peak is replaced by a ring of peaks, are called peak-ring craters, for example Schrödinger ; and the largest craters contain multiple concentric topographic rings, and are called multi-ringed basins, for example Orientale.

Correspondingly, the motions of the planets are subordinate to the motion inspired by the prime mover in the sphere of fixed stars.

The novel chronicles the continued struggles of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood against the violent Honored Matres, who are succeeding in their bid to seize control of the universe and destroy the factions and planets that oppose them.

Throughout the series several planets and space stations are all shown to be remade in the Earth ’ s image.

Other examples are such systems as planets, centrifuges, carousels, turning cars, spinning buckets, and rotating space stations.

It seems to me that the first human being to reach one of these planets may well learn what it is to be a truly great and noble species ''.

The first confirmed detection came in 1992, with the discovery of several terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257 + 12.

In 1999, Upsilon Andromedae became the first main-sequence star known to have multiple planets.

The first planet discovered in a system is given the designation " b " and later planets are given subsequent letters.

For instance, in the 55 Cancri system the first planet – 55 Cancri b – was discovered in 1996 ; two additional farther planets were simultaneously discovered in 2002 with the nearest to the star being named 55 Cancri c and the other 55 Cancri d ; a fourth planet was claimed ( its existence was later disputed ) in 2004 and named 55 Cancri e despite lying closer to the star than 55 Cancri b ; and the most recently discovered planet, in 2007, was named 55 Cancri f despite lying between 55 Cancri c and 55 Cancri d. As of April 2012 the highest letter in use is " j ", for the unconfirmed planet HD 10180 j ( HD 10180 h is the confirmed planet with the highest letter ).

God graced me with being able, through such a singular sign, to reveal to my Lord my devotion and the desire I have that his glorious name live as equal among the stars, and since it is up to me, the first discoverer, to name these new planets, I wish, in imitation of the great sages who placed the most excellent heroes of that age among the stars, to inscribe these with the name of the Most Serene Grand Duke.

Space probes have been placed into orbit around all the five planets known to the ancients: first Mars ( Mariner 9, 1971 ), then Venus ( Venera 9, 1975 ; but landings on Venus and atmospheric probes were performed even earlier ), Jupiter ( Galileo, 1995 ), Saturn ( Cassini / Huygens, 2004 ), and most recently Mercury ( MESSENGER, March 2011 ), and have returned data about these bodies and their natural satellites.

Finding that an elliptical orbit fit the Mars data, he immediately concluded that all planets move in ellipses, with the sun at one focus — Kepler's first law of planetary motion.

In January 2010 the Kepler Mission announced the discovery of the additional planets Kepler-7b, Kepler-8b, and three planets around Kepler-9 are expected to be the first of many discovered by the mission, which has a significant part of its field of view in Lyra.

It was also the first spacecraft to encounter two planets at close range, and for 33 years the only spacecraft to photograph Mercury in closeup.

Mars was one of the first planets visited, and the crew stayed on the surface for some time, finding water and experiencing a huge dust storm.

The first five games in the series concern the renegade guardian of the planet Terra (" Earth " in Latin ), named Sheltem, who becomes irrevocably corrupted, developing a penchant for throwing planets into their suns.

Planetary nebulae were given their name by the first astronomical observers who became able to distinguish them from planets, who tended to confuse them with planets, of more interest to them.

The first two, unlike scattered disc objects, have perihelia outside the gravitational reach of Neptune, and thus their orbits cannot be explained by perturbations from the gas giant planets.

The effect of these added interactions on the stability of the Solar System is very small, but at first it was not known whether they might add up over longer periods to significantly change the orbital parameters and lead to a completely different configuration, or whether some other stabilising effects might maintain the configuration of the orbits of the planets.

Historically, the apparent motions of the planets were first understood geometrically ( and without regard to gravity ) in terms of epicycles, which are the sums of numerous circular motions.

Although the idea that the planets orbited the Sun had been suggested many times, it was not until the 17th century that this view was supported by evidence from the first telescopic astronomical observations, performed by Galileo Galilei.

On December 20, 2011, the Kepler Space Telescope team reported the discovery of the first Earth-sized extrasolar planets, Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, orbiting a Sun-like star, Kepler-20.

The first civilization known to possess a functional theory of the planets were the Babylonians, who lived in Mesopotamia in the first and second millennia BC.

The first was begun by Danish astronomer Hans Emil Lau who, after studying the data on the orbit of Uranus from 1690 to 1895, concluded that one trans-Neptunian planet alone could not account for the discrepancies in its orbit, and postulated the position of two planets he believed were responsible.

Lowell's first search focused on the ecliptic, the plane encompassed by the zodiac where the other planets in the Solar System lie.