Concept
A planetary-mass object (PMO), planemo, or planetary body is, by geophysical definition of celestial objects, any celestial object massive enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium (to be rounded under its own gravity), but not enough to sustain core fusion like a star. The purpose of this term is to classify together a broader range of celestial objects than 'planet', since many objects similar in geophysical terms do not conform to conventional expectations for a planet. Planetary-mass objects can be quite diverse in origin and location. They include planets, dwarf planets, planetary-mass satellites and free-floating planets, which may have been ejected from a system (rogue planets) or formed through cloud-collapse rather than accretion (sub-brown dwarfs). Planetary-mass moon The three largest satellites Ganymede, Titan, and Callisto are of similar size or larger than the planet Mercury; these and four more – Io, Moon, Europa, and Triton – are larger and more massive than the largest and most massive dwarf planets, Pluto and Eris. Another dozen smaller satellites are large enough to have become round at some point in their history through their own gravity, tidal heating from their parent planets, or both. In particular, Titan has a thick atmosphere and stable bodies of liquid on its surface, like Earth (though for Titan the liquid is methane rather than water). Proponents of the geophysical definition of planets argue that location should not matter and that only geophysical attributes should be taken into account in the definition of a planet. The term satellite planet is sometimes used for planet-sized satellites. Dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a planetary-mass object that is neither a true planet nor a natural satellite; it is in direct orbit of a star, and is massive enough for its gravity to compress it into a hydrostatically equilibrious shape (usually a spheroid), but has not cleared the neighborhood of other material around its orbit.
Nicolas Lawrence Etienne Longeard
