Information about Planetology

Planetary science, also known as planetology and closely related to planetary astronomy, is the science of planets, or planetary systems, and the solar system. 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. Research tends to be done by a combination of astronomy, space exploration (particularly robotic spacecraft missions), and comparative, experimental and meteorite work based on Earth. There is also an important theoretical component and considerable use of computer simulation. Astrogeology is a major component of planetary sciences.

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

Terminology

When the discipline concerns itself with a celestial body in particular, a specialized term is used, as shown in the table below (only heliology, geology, selenology, and areology are currently in common use):

:

Body	Planetary science	Source of root
Sun	heliology	Greek Helios
Mercury	hermeology	Greek Hermes
Venus	cytherology	Greek Cytherea
Earth	geology	Greek Gaia
( Moon	selenology	Greek Selene )
Mars	areology	Greek Ares
Ceres	demeterology	Greek Demeter
Jupiter	zenology	Greek Zeus
Saturn	kronology	Greek Cronus
Uranus	uranology	Greek/Latin Uranus
Neptune	poseidology	Greek Poseidon
Pluto	hadeology	Greek Hades
Eris	eridology	Greek ''Eris

Basic Concepts

• Asteroid
• Brown dwarfs
• Celestial mechanics
• Comets
• Earthquake
• Equatorial bulge
• Extrasolar planets
• Gas giant
• Geophysics
• Icy moons
• Kuiper belt
• Magnetosphere
• Planet
• Planetary differentiation
• Planetary system
• the Pluto debate
• Precession
• Space weather
• Space weathering
• Star system
• Sun
• Synchronous rotation
• Terrestrial planets

•  • [ e] General subfields within astronomy
Cosmology • Extragalactic astronomy • Galactic astronomy • Star formation • Stellar astronomy • Planetary science • Astrometry • Astrochemistry • Astrobiology

See also

• Astrogeology
• Planetary habitability
• Europlanet

External links

• E. Grayzeck, D. R. Williams (2006-05-11). Lunar and Planetary Science (English). NASA. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
• NASA Mars Exploration Home
• NASA Cassini Mission to Saturn
• NASA DAWN Mission to the Asteroid Belt
• NASA MESSENGER Mission to Mercury
• European Space Agency
• Lunar and Planetary Lab at the University of Arizona
• Planetary Sciences at UCLA

Science (from the Latin scientia, 'knowledge'), in the broadest sense, refers to any systematic knowledge or practice.^[1] Examples of the broader use included political science and computer science, which are not incorrectly named, but rather named according to
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planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion in its core, and has cleared its neighbouring region of
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planetary system consists of the various non-stellar objects orbiting a star such as planets, moons, asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and cosmic dust.^[1][2] The Sun together with its planetary system, which includes Earth, is known as the Solar System.
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Solar System or solar system^[a] consists of the Sun and the other celestial objects gravitationally bound to it: the eight planets, their 166 known moons,^[1]
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Interdisciplinarity is the act of drawing from and integrating two or more academic disciplines, professions, technologies, departments, their methods and insights, in the pursuit of a common goal.
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Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or the Earth Sciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet.
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Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as the cosmic background radiation).
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Space exploration is the use of space technology to physically explore outer space, with both human spaceflight and robotic spacecraft.

Introduction

While the observation of objects in space—known as astronomy—pre-dates reliable recorded history, it was
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robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe.
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A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface without being destroyed. While in space it is called a meteoroid.
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The word theory has a number of distinct meanings in different fields of knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion.

In common usage, people often use the word theory to signify a conjecture, an opinion, or a speculation.
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computer simulation, a computer model or a computational model is a computer program that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system. Computer simulations have become a useful part of mathematical modelling of many natural systems in physics
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Planetary geology, alternatively known as astrogeology or exogeology, is a planetary science discipline concerned with the geology of the celestial bodies such as the planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, and meteorites.
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A Micrometeoroid (also micrometeorite, micrometeor) is a tiny meteoroid; a small particle of rock in space, usually weighing less than a gram.

Scientific interest

See also: Cosmic dust

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gas giant (sometimes also known as a Jovian planet after the planet Jupiter) is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in our Solar System; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
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The Sun

Observation data
Mean distance
from Earth 1.49610¹¹ m
(8.31 min at light speed)
Visual brightness (V) −26.74^{m [1]}
Absolute magnitude 4.
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HeliOS was a Unix-like operating system for parallel computers developed and sold by Perihelion Software. It was most commonly used on various Transputer systems, but also supported other architectures.
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Mercury  

Mariner 10 photomosaic of Mercury
Orbital characteristics^[1]
Epoch J2000
Aphelion distance: 69,816,927 km
0.46669733 AU
Perihelion distance: 46,001,210 km
0.
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The surface of Mercury is dominated by impact craters, and lava plains similar in some respects to the lunar maria. Other notable features include scarps and mineral deposits (possibly ice) inside craters at the poles. Currently, the surface is presumed to be geologically inactive.
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Hermes (Greek, Ἑρμῆς, IPA: /ˈhɝmiːz/), in Greek mythology, is the Olympian god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and
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VENUS is an acronym for the Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea . The VENUS project is operated out of the University of Victoria and is an advanced cabled sea floor observatory, consisting of fibre optic cables connecting oceanographic instruments on the sea floor of the
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Venus has striking surface characteristics, which are as beautiful as they are unusual. The majority of what we know today about its surface stems from radar observations, mainly images sent by the Magellan
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Cytherea can be:

• Another name for the goddess Aphrodite of Greek mythology,
• A synonym of the orchid genus Calypso.
• A genus of Bombyliidae, Cytherea (insect).

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EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001. Their greatest hit, their debut single "time after time", peaked at #13 in the Oricon singles chart.
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Oceanic crust      0-20 Ma
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For other uses, see Gaia.

Gaia (pronounced /'geɪ.ə/ or /'gaɪ.
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Moon  

The Moon as seen by an observer on Earth
Orbital characteristics
Periapsis: 363,104 km
0.0024 AU
Apoapsis: 405,696 km
0.0027 AU
Semi-major axis: 384,399 km
0.
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The geology of the Moon (sometimes called selenology, although the latter term can refer more generally to "lunar science") is quite different from that of the Earth.
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Selene (Σελήνη, "moon"; English IPA: /sɛˈliːniː/) was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the titans Hyperion and Theia.
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Mars  

Mars as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope
Orbital characteristics
Epoch J2000<ref name="nssdc" />
Aphelion distance: 249,228,730 km
1.66599116 AU
Perihelion distance: 206,644,545 km
1.
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