What is the differnce between a planet and a star?
141087
mainly :\nstars generate light, planets only reflect\nplanets move through an orbit (around stars), stars don't
39095
No. \n\nStar:\nA self-luminous celestial body consisting of a mass of gas held together by its own gravity in which the energy generated by nuclear reactions in the interior is balanced by the outflow of energy to the surface, and the inward-directed gravitational forces are balanced by the outward-directed gas and radiation pressures\n\nPlanet:\nA nonluminous celestial body larger than an asteroid or comet, illuminated by light from a star, such as the sun, around which it revolves.\n\nSo, stars are self-luminous (have their own light) and are stationary. Planets don't produce their own light and revolve around a star.
220183
Simple way to look at this perinnial question. One solar system. One planet like earth froms. Sustains life. Universe is filled with billions of stars. Some the size of our Sun. Some have planets revolving round them. Like earth too. Take a wild guess and u wont be wrong. \n;-)
181847
Because planets are actually moving in relation to stars.  They are orbiting the sun.  They are also a lot closer to us than stars.  For example, when you drive, you see mountains in the distance.  You are passing those mountains at 65 miles an hour.  They appear to be going by very slowly.  But when you pass a light pole right next to you at the same speed, it appears to whizz by really fast even though it's the same speed.
903588
The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the official scientific body for astronomical nomenclature, defines a "dwarf planet" as a celestial body that, within the Solar System,\n\n    (a) is in orbit around the Sun;\n    (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape;\n    (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit; and\n    (d) is not a satellite\n\nIt differs from the definition of "planet" in that a dwarf planet has not cleared its orbital neighbourhood.
435493
It's mass.  And its not just in star clusters.  Mass is the only major characteristic of stars.  Almost everything else can be derived (temperature, evolutionary track, luminosity) can be determined by their mass.
1057689
It is not a star but a planet which you can tell since it is not twinkling. Stars are so far away they appear as a point, while planets have a observable disk. Wind in the upper atmosphere then causes the light to bend which causes star light to twinkle but planets do not. \n\nOnce you determine it is a planet because it is not twinkling. You can rule out it being venus since it is too far from the sun. Venus is also usually a bit brighter.\n\nNow it is too bright to be Saturn or certainly any further planet. That leaves Jupiter or Mars. These you can distinguish by color. Mars has a reddish tinge to it. What you are observing does not.\n\n It is Jupiter. If you have a good pair of binoculars you should even be able to make out a couple moons.
109946
There is only one solar system, and it is the one our planet is part of.\n\nThe solar system comprises the Earth's Sun and the retinue of celestial objects gravitationally bound to it. Traditionally, this is said to consist of the Sun, nine planets and their 158 currently known moons; however, a large number of other objects, including asteroids, meteoroids, planetoids, comets, and interplanetary dust, orbit the Sun as well. Astornomers are debating over the presence of a tenth planet.\n\nAlthough the term "solar system" is frequently applied to other star systems and the planetary systems which may comprise them, it should strictly refer to Earth's system specifically: the word "solar" is derived from the Sun's Latin name, Sol, and thus the term sometimes appears as Solar System. When talking about another stellar system or planetary system, including the stars and bodies associated with them through gravity, it is usual to shorten it to drop the term "stellar" and form names such as "the Alpha Centauri system" or "the 51 Pegasi system".
312576
Stars are big fiery balls of gas. Essentially the gases cluster together and become stars through gravity and fusion. It's a rather complicated process; check the link below for a more detailed explanation.\n\nStars appear to be in our sky because they are in space. Most stars appear to be small points of light, although many of these stars are smaller than our sun. The sun simply appears larger because it is much nearer to the Earth.
983443
Pluto. \n\nThe International Astronomical Union (IAU), at a meeting in August 2006, voted on their first "official" definition of a planet. Based on this new definition, Pluto is no longer a planet. According to the IAU's definition, our Solar System has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. In the new scheme, Pluto will be one of several "dwarf planets" in the Solar System; but "dwarf planets" are not considered true planets. THere is still a lot of disagreement within the community on the definition of a planet.\n\nHere's the definition of a planet (found at wikipedia): \n\nThe International Astronomical Union defines "planet" as a celestial body that, within the Solar System,\n\n(a) is in orbit around the Sun; \n(b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape; and \n(c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit; \nor within another system, \n\n(Pluto fails to meet the third condition above)\n\n(i) is in orbit around a star or stellar remnants; \n(ii) has a mass below the limiting mass for thermonuclear fusion of deuterium; and \n(iii) is above the minimum mass/size requirement for planetary status in the Solar System.
12842
Our Sun is a star and is thus made of the same materials (in general) that the rest of the stars are.\n\nBut because of different ages and environments, there are probably no two stars that are exactly alike.
409930
Multiple star systems are very common. In fact, the closest star to us (Proxima Centauri) is part of just such a system. It was once believed that planets couldn't be in multiple star systems, but of the 166 extrasolar planets so far found, several are in such systems.\n\nAs for our solar system that seems to have just one star, a persistent theory continues that the sun does have a companion star that has an orbit so highly eccentric that it approaches the sun once in several million years. To date, no hard evidence for such a star exists. Also, if Jupiter had more mass, it would have at least started its life as a brown dwarf star.
11344
Well, planets are the blown off objects of a star. During the birth of a star, massive eruptions are normal. Due to the impact of the eruption, the blown away parts travel over the space and will start rotating around the star from which these objects got blown away. The rotations take place due to the magnetic power of the star.\n\nInitially the planets are pretty hot and in few billion years, they cool and settle down like earth.
497775
Stars, except for the Sun, although they may be millions of miles in diameter, are very far away.  They appear as point sources even when viewed by telescopes.  The planets in our solar system, much smaller than stars, are closer and can be resolved as disks with a little bit of magnification (field binoculars, for example).\n\nSince the Earth's atmosphere is turbulent, all images viewed up through it tend to "swim."  The result of this is that sometimes a single point in object space gets mapped to two or more points in image space, and also sometimes a single point in object space does not get mapped into any point in image space.  When a star's single point in object space fails to map to at least one point in image space, the star seems to disappear temporarily.  This does not mean the star's light is lost for that moment.  It just means that it didn't get to your eye, it went somewhere else.\n\nSince planets represent several points in object space, it is highly likely that one or more points in the planet's object space get mapped to a points in image space, and the planet's image never winks out.  Each individual ray is twinkling away as badly as any star, but when all of those individual rays are viewed together, the next effect is averaged out to something considerably steadier.\n\nThe result is that stars tend to twinkle, and planets do not.  Other extended objects in space, even very far ones like nebulae, do not twinkle if they are sufficiently large that they have non-zero apparent diameter when viewed from the Earth.
45221
The inner planets are called the terrestrial planets and are defined by being small rocky bodies with small atmospheres if any at all.  The outer planets are called the jovian planets and are defined by being large in size with giant gas atmospheres.  Due to their mass they tend to have many moons and a ring system (all four do).  \n\nWhat mainly gives rise to this difference is twofold. \n1. Temperature\n2. Chemical differentiation\n\nSince the gas giants are so cold they are able to retain more of an atmosphere since the slower moving gases in them are less able to escape gravity.\nAlso, as the solar system formed heavy element "sank" to the inner portions of the solar disk while lighter elements were left behind to the outer regions to collect into the giant planets.\n\nInside the gas giants is a rocky type core but this is encased in the giant atmospheric envelope that surrounds them.\n\nThis is the short of it.
612427
Nice question....stars shine because it is millions of light year away from us...in the case of planets its nearer than stars...not sure though..but i think so...
1103870
Planets do not twinkle the way stars do. In fact, this is a good way of figuring out if a particular object you see in the sky is a planet or a star. The reason is that stars are so far away that they are essentially points of light on the sky, while planets actually have finite size. The size of a planet on the sky in a sense "averages out" the turbulent effects of the atmosphere, presenting a relatively stable image to the eye.