ELi5 what makes the sun a star and not a planet? And why is the moon not considered a planet?

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ELi5 what makes the sun a star and not a planet? And why is the moon not considered a planet?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Classically, the sun and the moon are planets too – the word ‘planet’ simply means ‘wanderer’, as in, lights in the sky that move around rather than staying static like stars do.

Of course, then we discovered that most of the stars in the sky are gigantic nuclear furnaces like the sun is, while the other planets were balls of rock and gas orbiting the sun. So we decided the gigantic nuclear furnaces are called ‘stars’, and the things that orbit them are ‘planets’.

And then we decided to name the things that orbit planets after the thing that orbits us.

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