Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: Which is the smallest planet?
Mercury (0.4AU from the Sun) is the closest planet to the Sun and the smallest planet in the Solar System (0.055M⊕). Mercury has no natural satellites; besides impact craters, its only known geological features are lobed ridges or rupes that were probably produced by a period of contraction early in its history.[74] Mercury's very tenuous atmosphere consists of atoms blasted off its surface by the solar wind.[75] Its relatively large iron core and thin mantle have not yet been adequately explained. Hypotheses include that its outer layers were stripped off by a giant impact; or, that it was prevented from fully accreting by the young Sun's energy.[76][77]
Solar System – gravitationally bound system comprising the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest eight are the planets (including Earth), with the remainder being significantly smaller objects, such as dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies. Of the objects that orbit the Sun indirectly, the moons, two are larger than the smallest planet, Mercury.
Gliese 777 c, often catalogued as Gliese 777 Ac or simply HD 190360 c, is an extrasolar planet approximately 52 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. The planet was discovered orbiting the primary star of the Gliese 777 system in 2005 using the radial velocity method and confirmed in 2009. The planet was once called the "smallest extrasolar planet discovered", but this is currently no longer the case. With a minimum mass just 18 times that of the Earth, the planet is likely a "hot Neptune" planet, a small Jovian planet, or possibly a large terrestrial planet (a super-Earth).
There are eight planets in the Solar System, which are in increasing distance from the Sun:Jupiter is the largest, at 318 Earth masses, whereas Mercury is the smallest, at 0.055 Earth masses.
Mercury – smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System. Its orbital period (about 88 Earth days) is less than any other planet in the Solar System. Seen from Earth, it appears to move around its orbit in about 116 days. It has no known natural satellites. It is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger to the gods.
History of Mercury – 
This minor planet was named for the Arctic Sea, located in the Northern Hemisphere and the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. Naming citation was first published in "The Names of the Minor Planets" by Paul Herget in 1955 ().
The smallest known extrasolar planet that is likely a "gas planet" is Kepler-138d, which has the same mass as Earth but is 60% larger and therefore has a density that indicates a thick gas envelope.
A Spacer planet in "Robots and Empire" and also in "Mother Earth" novelette. It was one of the original Spacer worlds, the smallest and the furthest from Earth, settled by Spacers from Faunus. Hesperos was the planet on which Vasilia Aliena awaited the death of her father, Han Fastolfe. It is named after Hesperos, the Greek god associated with the star Venus.
At a theoretical level, Kane found that moons around the inner TRAPPIST-1 planets would need to be extraordinarily dense to be even theoretically possible. This is based on a comparison of the Hill sphere, which marks the outer limit of a moon's possible orbit by defining the region of space in which a planet's gravity is stronger than the tidal force of its star, and the Roche limit, which represents the smallest distance at which a moon can orbit before the planet's tides exceed its own gravity and pull it apart. These constraints do not rule out the presence of ring systems (where particles are held together by chemical rather than gravitational forces). The mathematical derivation is as follows:
Trojans are one type of co-orbital objects. In this arrangement, a star and a planet orbit about their common barycenter, which is close to the center of the star because it is usually much more massive than the orbiting planet. In turn, a much smaller mass than both the star and the planet, located at one of the Lagrangian points of the star–planet system, is subject to a combined gravitational force that acts through this barycenter. Hence the smallest object orbits around the barycenter with the same orbital period as the planet, and the arrangement can remain stable over time.
The discovery of a planet, MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb, orbiting this object was announced on June 2, 2008. This planet, with a mass of approximately 3.3 times that of Earth, is one of the smallest known extrasolar planets. It was found when it caused a gravitational microlensing event on the night of May 24, 2007, which was detected as part of the MOA-II gravitational microlensing survey at the Mount John University Observatory in New Zealand.
It is the smallest discovered planet in the Kepler-124 system, and has the closest orbit of the three known planets. Kepler-124b orbits 96% closer to its star than Earth (approximately 3 Earth days), which in the Kepler-124 system is inside the inner limit of the star's habitable zone.
Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System. Its orbital period around the Sun of 87.97 days is the shortest of all the planets in the Solar System. It is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger of the gods.
In 1978, Pluto's moon Charon was discovered. By measuring Charon's orbital period, astronomers could accurately calculate Pluto's mass for the first time, which they found to be much smaller than expected. Pluto's mass was roughly one twenty-fifth of Mercury's, making it by far the smallest planet, smaller even than the Earth's Moon, although it was still over ten times as massive as the largest asteroid, Ceres.
Each of the smallest planet models is contained within a round-topped concrete plinth about high. The stainless steel model is held inside a circular hole through the side of the plinth; hence the model of the planet may be viewed by looking through the hole. The plinths were created by Youngman using fibreglass moulds which he had also made.
K2-3c also known as EPIC 201367065 c is an exoplanet orbiting K2-3 a red dwarf every 24 days. It is 144 ly away. It has a density of 1.82g/cm, indicating that it could be a Gas dwarf or a mini-Neptune. It is one of the smallest gas planets ever discovered. Despite not being the smallest planet in the system by radius, by mass it is by far the least massive, with a mass only double that of Earth.
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System after Mercury. In English, Mars carries a name of the Roman god of war, and is often referred to as the "Red Planet" because the reddish iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance that is distinctive among the astronomical bodies visible to the naked eye. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.
The smallest known planet is PSR B1257+12A, one of the first extrasolar planets discovered, which was found in 1992 in orbit around a pulsar. Its mass is roughly half that of the planet Mercury. The smallest known planet orbiting a main-sequence star other than the Sun is Kepler-37b, with a mass (and radius) slightly higher than that of the Moon.
Mars – fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury. Named after the Roman god of war, it is often referred to as the "Red Planet" because the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.
K2-148b is a confirmed Super-Earth, probably rocky, closely orbiting a small orange dwarf star. It is the innermost of three Super-Earths around the star K2-148, which is in a wide binary pair with the M0.5V red dwarf EPIC 220194953. K2-148b is the smallest planet of the system, at about a third larger than Earth, and could be terrestrial in nature. However, the three planets do not exhibit significant transit timing variations, implying that they could have relatively low masses. The planet was validated in early 2018 by Hirano "et al." and is too hot for known life.
The planet was discovered by a team of French and Swiss astronomers, who announced their findings on November 30, 2005, as a discovery of one of the smallest extrasolar planets ever found, with one conclusion being that planets may be more common around the smallest stars. It was the fifth planet found around a red dwarf star (after Gliese 876's planets and Gliese 436 b).
Mercury is one of four terrestrial planets in the Solar System, and is a rocky body like Earth. It is the smallest planet in the Solar System, with an equatorial radius of . Mercury is also smaller—albeit more massive—than the largest natural satellites in the Solar System, Ganymede and Titan. Mercury consists of approximately 70% metallic and 30% silicate material. Mercury's density is the second highest in the Solar System at 5.427 g/cm, only slightly less than Earth's density of 5.515 g/cm. If the effect of gravitational compression were to be factored out from both planets, the materials of which Mercury is made would be denser than those of Earth, with an uncompressed density of 5.3 g/cm versus Earth's 4.4 g/cm.
The issue of a clear definition for "planet" came to a head in January 2005 with the discovery of the trans-Neptunian object Eris, a body more massive than the smallest then-accepted planet, Pluto. In its August 2006 response, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), recognised by astronomers as the world body responsible for resolving issues of nomenclature, released its decision on the matter during a meeting in Prague. This definition, which applies only to the Solar System, states that a planet is a body that orbits the Sun, is massive enough for its own gravity to make it round, and has "cleared its neighbourhood" of smaller objects around its orbit. Under this new definition, Pluto and the other trans-Neptunian objects do not qualify as planets. The IAU's decision has not resolved all controversies, and while many scientists have accepted the definition, some in the astronomical community have rejected it outright.
OGLE-2005-BLG-390L has one known planet, which was discovered using the technique of gravitational microlensing. Indications are that the planet is about five times Earth mass, orbiting at about 2.6 astronomical units from the parent star. The discovery was announced on January 25, 2006. OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb is considered one of the smallest known extrasolar planets around a main sequence star, possibly rocky, with a mass around 5.5 times that of the Earth. The orbital
radius (assuming a circular orbit) of the planet is 2.6 AU, however the orbital elements are unknown. Based on its low mass and estimated temperature of around 50 K, the planet is thought to consist mainly of ices, like Pluto or Uranus, rather than being a Jupiter-like gas giant.
Neutron stars can host exoplanets. These can be original, circumbinary, captured, or the result of a second round of planet formation. Pulsars can also strip the atmosphere off from a star, leaving a planetary-mass remnant, which may be understood as a chthonian planet or a stellar object depending on interpretation. For pulsars, such pulsar planets can be detected with the pulsar timing method, which allows for high precision and detection of much smaller planets than with other methods. Two systems have been definitively confirmed. The first exoplanets ever to be detected were the three planets Draugr, Poltergeist and Phobetor around PSR B1257+12, discovered in 1992–1994. Of these, Draugr is the smallest exoplanet ever detected, at a mass of twice that of the Moon. Another system is PSR B1620-26, where a circumbinary planet orbits a neutron star-white dwarf binary system. Also, there are several unconfirmed candidates. Pulsar planets receive little visible light, but massive amounts of ionizing radiation and high-energy stellar wind, which makes them rather hostile environments.