I'm wondering if there's a name that encapsulates the concept of a planet and the objects that orbit in its gravity. There's a solar system that encapsulates a star and its multiple planets and other objects, but I don't think that "solar system" describes the Earth and its moon, or Jupiter and it's many moons, for example.
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1This question may be relevant to you The defintion of star/planetary/solar system – lordparthurnaax Sep 23 '20 at 04:06
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1I'm voting to leave open. In that post, a planetary system is defined to be a stellar system without a star. That is different from what is being asked in this question which asks about a term that encompasses a planet and its system of satellites (by analogy with a stellar system that encompasses a star and its system of planets). – usernumber Sep 23 '20 at 12:48
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This question has been asked before on the Space Exploration page.
In summary, the term used is system, e.g. the 'Jupiter system'.
christopherlovell
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10While "
system" is correct. I thought I'd comment that it seems like "planetary system" should be a valid name when the planet name is generic. Sadly no... a "planetary system" is a "solar system" for stars other than our own. "Solar system" (upper or lower case) is only supposed to refer to our own star -- a definition from an era when we were the only known solar system. So "planetary system" was used to refer to all the other "solar systems". Confusing? You bet! I think there's probably room for improving those definitions. – Tim Campbell Sep 21 '20 at 15:25 -
The term 'stellar system' exists as analogy to solar system - but is not in as wide use as system (general with or without planets) or planetary system (star or stars with at least a planet in it). – planetmaker Sep 21 '20 at 16:57