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Planet: Quick Facts

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solar system to scale
Diagram showing the Moon orbiting Earth, with arrows illustrating gravitational forces between them and how gravity alters the Moon's natural path, resulting in its curved orbit around the planet.
A white man in glasses holds a microphone under the text. Ask an Editor, and. What is planetary alignment?, against a starry space background.
The Sun and planets in its orbit.
Learn about the dwarf planets within our solar system
Explore exoplanets and the techniques used to detect them
Know the ten interesting facts that prove the earth is round
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Key People

Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
English physicist and mathematician
Galileo
Galileo
Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler
German astronomer
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Eudoxus of Cnidus
Greek mathematician and astronomer
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Apollonius of Perga
Greek mathematician
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Geoffrey Marcy
American astronomer
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Didier Queloz
Swiss astronomer
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Michel Mayor
Swiss astronomer
illustration of Robert Hooke's law of elasticity of materials
Robert Hooke
British scientist
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Gerard Peter Kuiper
American astronomer
Boscovich, detail of a portrait by an unknown artist; in Dubrovnik Cloister, Croatia
Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich
Italian astronomer and mathematician
Peter Andreas Hansen
Peter Andreas Hansen
German astronomer
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George William Hill
American astronomer
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William Rutter Dawes
British astronomer
Jérôme Lalande, etching by Christian Fritzsch, 1773.
Jérôme Lalande
French astronomer

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