Planetary science

From Freepedia

Planetary science, also known as planetology or planetary astronomy, is the science of planets and the solar system, and incorporates an interdisciplinary approach drawing from diverse sciences. Planetary science 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 unmanned space 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 specialised term is used, as shown in the table below (only Heliology, Earth science, Selenology, and Areology are currently in common use):

Body	Term	Source of root in term
Sun	Heliology	Greek Helios
Mercury	Hermeology	Greek Hermes
Venus	Cytherology	Greek Cythera
Earth	Earth science
Moon	Selenology	Greek Selene
Mars	Areology	Greek Ares
Jupiter	Zenology	Greek Zeus
Saturn	Kronology	Greek Chronos
Uranus	Uranology	Greek/Latin Uranus
Neptune	Poseidology	Greek Poseidon
Pluto	Hadeology	Greek Hades

Basic Concepts

• Asteroid
• Brown dwarfs
• Comets
• Earthquake
• Equatorial bulge
• Extrasolar planets
• Gas giant planets
• Icy moons
• Kuiper belt
• Magnetosphere
• Planet
• Planetary differentiation
• the Pluto debate
• Precession
• Solar-terrestrial interaction
• Space weather
• Sun
• Synchronous rotation
• Super Jupiter
• Terrestrial planets

General subfields within astronomy	Edit
Astrometry | Astrophysics | Cosmology | Galactic astronomy | Extragalactic astronomy | Galaxy formation and evolution | Planetary science | Stellar astronomy | Stellar evolution | Star formation

See also

• Astrogeology
• Planetary habitability