tell which planets make up the inner and outer planet groupings and why you

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Lauren. M

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believe.....? In a paragraph tell which planets make up the inner and outer planet groupings and why you believe that astronomers decided to group them that way. Include at least three reasons for grouping them this way.

I really have no clue=/ Can you please help me out?? =)
 
Inner Planets - Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Outer Planets -Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune

Here are my own reasons why I would classify them that way.
Reasons - 1. The first four planets have something in common, each is terrestrial. The other four are gas giants.
2. Mercury, Venus and Mars are the only planets to come within 1A.U. away from us.
3. The inner planets take under 5 years to complete a full revolution around the sun.

Those are my reasons, and I didn't put it in a paragraph since I don't want to end up doing somebody else's homework.
=D
 
mercury, venus, earth, and mars are inner
jupiter, saturn, uranus, and neptune are outer

its because the inner planets are inside of the asteroid belt (between mars and jupiter), and the outer planets are outside of the belt and further away from the sun
 
The four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) are known as "terrestrial" planets (terra = land, or earth) because they are made of rock.

The four outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are known as 'Jovian' planets (Jove = Jupiter = A Roman god). They are all gas giants, meaning they are made almost entirely of gas or liquid, with no detectable solid surface.

The gas giants are all much larger than the four inner planets.

You may be wondering why Pluto isn't in the list. It was demoted from planetary status a few years ago, because it is too small to have cleared its orbit of debris (such as the planet Neptune).
 
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