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There are eight planets within the Solar System; planets outside of the solar system are also known as exoplanets. Artist's concept of the potentially habitable exoplanet Kepler-186f. As of 27 February 2025, there are 5,839 confirmed exoplanets in 4,359 planetary systems, with 979 systems having more than one planet. [1]
The eight planets of the Solar System with size to scale (up to down, left to right): Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune (outer planets), Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury (inner planets)
It is not known precisely how many objects in the Solar System are dwarf planets. The nine objects listed in the third column are the ones agreed on by most astronomers, corresponding to a threshold of about 900–1000 km diameter.
There is strong consensus among astronomers that five members of the Kuiper belt are dwarf planets. [198] [203] Many dwarf planet candidates are being considered, pending further data for verification. [204] Pluto (29.7–49.3 AU) is the largest known object in the Kuiper belt.
Of the Solar System's eight planets and its nine most likely dwarf planets, six planets and seven dwarf planets are known to be orbited by at least 300 natural satellites, or moons. At least 19 of them are large enough to be gravitationally rounded; of these, all are covered by a crust of ice except for Earth's Moon and Jupiter's Io. [1]
From the total of 5,086 stars known to have exoplanets (as of January 26, 2024), there are a total of 1,033 known multiplanetary systems, [1] or stars with at least two confirmed planets, beyond the Solar System. This list includes systems with at least three confirmed planets or two confirmed planets where additional candidates have been proposed.
Now known not to exist, the object has been explained as a series of misidentified stars and internal reflections inside the optics of particular telescope designs. It was also alternatively proposed by Jean-Charles Houzeau to be a heliocentric planet that orbited the Sun every 283 days and be in conjunction with Venus every 1080 days.
As many as 15% of them could have Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones. [6] On November 4, 2013, astronomers reported, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way galaxy.