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Today's featured article

Planets of the Solar System

A planet is a large, rounded body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant or brown dwarf. The Solar System has eight (pictured): four terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; and four giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The term "planet" at first included the Sun, Moon and the five planets visible to the naked eye in the sky; they were seen as having associations with the gods. Copernicus theorized the Earth was a planet and, like the others, orbited the Sun. "Planet" came to include many objects, such as moons, within and beyond the Solar System. The International Astronomical Union in 2006 defined a planet in the Solar System to have cleared its neighborhood of other bodies, and that extrasolar planets should orbit stars and not be large enough to support deuterium fusion. Many planetary scientists, though, still apply the word "planet" more broadly, including dwarf planets, planetary-mass moons, rogue planets and brown dwarfs. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

June 18: Autistic Pride Day

Cadaver Tomb of René of Chalon

1898 – The Cadaver Tomb of René of Chalon (pictured) in Bar-le-Duc, France, was designated a monument historique.
1958 – English composer Benjamin Britten's one-act opera Noye's Fludde was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival.
1981 – The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology, made its maiden flight.
1994 – The Troubles: Ulster Volunteer Force members attacked a crowded bar in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland, with assault rifles, killing six people.
2009 – The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA's first mission to the Moon in more than ten years, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Rogier van der Weyden (d. 1464)
Ambrose Philips (d. 1749)
Lou Brock (b. 1939)
Stephanie Kwolek (d. 2014)

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In the news

Iga Świątek and Carlos Alcaraz

A fire in a residential building in Mangaf, south of Kuwait City, kills fifty people.
A plane crash near Chikangawa, Malawi, kills nine people, including Vice President Saulos Chilima.
In tennis, Iga Świątek wins the women's singles and Carlos Alcaraz wins the men's singles titles at the French Open (both pictured).
In the Indian general election, the National Democratic Alliance, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is re-elected with a reduced majority.

Wikipedia:Today's second feature/June 25, 2024

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