What is planet?

What Does planet Mean

The notion of planet has originated from the Latin word planēta , which derives from a Greek concept that is translated into Spanish as “wandering” . It refers to a solid celestial element that, according to those who discover and analyze it, revolves around a certain star and reflects lights that allow it to be observed.

The information shared by the International Astronomical Union allows us to know that the planets have a sufficient amount of mass that allows their gravity to overcome the forces of the rigid body, so they adopt a structure in hydrostatic equilibrium.

On the other hand, it must be said that planets are bodies that have clarified the surroundings of their orbit to shed planetesimals , a concept that describes solid objects that once appeared in protoplanetary disks.
Today, the Solar System is considered to be made up of eight planets: ours (that is, Earth ), Saturn , Mars , Jupiter , Venus , Mercury , Uranus, and Neptune . Until 2006 , Pluto was also considered a planet, although later it was decided to mention it as a dwarf planet (although it does not constitute a satellite of a planet, it has not yet cleared the vicinity of its orbit), as in the cases of Ceres and Eris .
In this sense, it is curious to mention that their name, with the exception of ours, has its origin in an important group of gods belonging to Greek or Roman mythology. In this way, we find the fact that Saturn is the name of the Roman god of agriculture, Mars is the representative deity of war, Jupiter is the most important Roman god and Venus is the goddess of love.
On the other hand, Mercury is the deity with which commerce is identified, Uranus is the Greek god of the sky and finally Neptune is the god that the Romans associated with the sea.
According to their structure, the planets can be segmented as terrestrial or telluric planets and Jovian planets . The former are small, have a solid and rocky surface, and high density (like Earth and Mars). The latter, on the other hand, are essentially gaseous, with low density and a large diameter (like Jupiter and Saturn).
Regarding their movements, the planets can be inferior (those that do not go too far from the Sun and cannot be in opposition) or superior (their angle of elongation is unlimited and they can be in opposition).
In addition to all the above we can also underline that the term planet is also identified with one of the most important publishing groups that exist in the whole world. More precisely, Grupo Planeta, launched in Barcelona in 1949, is in the top ten in this sector, has more than one hundred labels and works in various fields such as the media or even the Internet.

Likewise, we cannot ignore that in the cinematographic field there is a film that takes the term in question as a fundamental element and that has managed to become one of the classics in the history of this art. We are referring to Planet of the Apes , a science fiction film directed in 1968 by Franklin Schaffner and starring Charlon Heston.
A homonymous book by Pierre Boulle is the one that gives meaning to this production that has recently had a remake signed by the great filmmaker Tim Burton.

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