What is "planet"

Planet \Plan"et\, n. [OE. planete, F. plan[`e]te, L. planeta, fr. Gr. ?, and ? a planet; prop. wandering, fr. ? to wander, fr. ? a wandering.]

1. (Astron.) A celestial body which revolves about the sun in an orbit of a moderate degree of eccentricity. It is distinguished from a comet by the absence of a coma, and by having a less eccentric orbit. See Solar system.

   Note: The term planet was first used to distinguish those stars which have an apparent motion through the constellations from the fixed stars, which retain their relative places unchanged. The inferior planets are Mercury and Venus, which are nearer to the sun than is the earth; the superior planets are Mars, the asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, which are farther from the sun than is the earth. Primary planets are those which revolve about the sun; secondary planets, or moons, are those which revolve around the primary planets as satellites, and at the same time revolve with them about the sun.

2. A star, as influencing the fate of a men.

   There's some ill planet reigns.
   --Shak.

   Planet gear. (Mach.) See Epicyclic train, under Epicyclic.

   Planet wheel, a gear wheel which revolves around the wheel with which it meshes, in an epicyclic train.

late Old English planete, from Old French planete (Modern French planète), from Late Latin planeta, from Greek planetes, from (asteres) planetai "wandering (stars)," from planasthai "to wander," of unknown origin, possibly from PIE *pele- (2) "flat, to spread" on notion of "spread out." So called because they have apparent motion, unlike the "fixed" stars. Originally including also the moon and sun; modern scientific sense of "world that orbits a star" is from 1630s.

n. 1 (lb en now historical or astrology) Each of the seven major bodies which move relative to the fixed stars in the night sky—the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. (from 14^thc.) 2 (lb en astronomy) A body which orbits the Sun directly and is massive enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium (effectively meaning a spheroid) and to dominate its orbit; specifically, the eight major bodies of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. (Pluto was considered a planet until 2006 and has now been reclassified as a dwarf planet.) (from 17^thc.) 3 A large body which directly orbits any star (or star cluster) but which has not attained nuclear fusion. 4 In phrases such as ''the planet'', ''this planet'', sometimes refers to the Earth.

1. n. any of the celestial bodies (other than comets or satellites) that revolve around the sun in the solar system

2. a person who follows or serves another [syn: satellite]

A planet, in astronomy, is one of a class of celestial bodies that orbit stars. (A dwarf planet is a similar, but officially mutually exclusive, class of body.)

• For articles on specific types of planet, see List of planets

Planet or Planets may also refer to:

• Planets in astrology, another concept referring to celestial bodies but as used in prophecy

Planet is a quarterly cultural and political magazine that looks at Wales from an international perspective, and at the world from the standpoint of Wales.

The magazine publishes high-quality writing, artwork and photography by established and emerging figures, and covers subjects across politics, the arts, literature, current events, social justice questions, minority language and culture, the environment and more.

Planet enjoys a vibrant and diverse international readership and is read by key figures in the Welsh political cultural scene.

The magazine was originally set up as a bi-monthly publication by Ned Thomas in 1970, and was published continually until 1979. This followed a decision in 1967 to devolve the function of The Arts Council of Great Britain in Wales to the Welsh Arts Council. Thomas explained that "The arts council's literature director, Meic Stephens, had a vision of creating a publishing base in Wales that hadn't existed before". The magazine was renamed Planet: the Welsh Internationalist in 1977.

On the eve of the Welsh devolution referendum, 1979, predicting a "no" vote, Thomas decided to bring the magazine to an end as he believed "that a no vote would mean that Planet's stance and ideology had failed, and a yes vote would mean that Wales needed a magazine published more often than once every two months". He was persuaded to relaunch the magazine in 1985, and with improved funding, John Barnie was employed as a full-time assistant before becoming editor in 1990. Barnie was succeeded by his wife Helle Michelsen, in 2006, and in 2010 by Jasmine Donahaye. In 2012, Emily Trahair became the current editor, with Dafydd Prys ap Morus as Production Editor and Helen Pendry as Assistant Editor. The team also puts together the Planet Extra website.

In 2002, funding was moved from the Arts Council to the Welsh Books Council, and in 2009, the Welsh Books Council changed their magazine's funding remit to a quarterly. The first expanded quarterly issue was published in April of that year. The magazine celebrated its 40th anniversary with its 200th issue in November 2010.

Originally published in Llangeitho, the magazine's headquarters later moved to the publishing heartland of Aberystwyth. Planet also publishes a book imprint.

Planet was an early steam locomotive built in 1830 by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

In online media, Planet is a feed aggregator application designed to collect posts from the weblogs of members of an Internet community and display them on a single page. Planet runs on a web server. It creates pages with entries from the original feeds in chronological order, most recent entries first.

Planet was written in Python and maintained by Jeff Waugh and Scott James Remnant. There are several successors: Venus, started by Sam Ruby; Pluto, started by hackNY, and a second project also named Pluto, started by Gerald Bauer.

Released under the Python License, Planet is free software.