Geology of solar terrestrial planets billions of years ago in the cores of massive stars. These elements constituted only 0.6% of the material in the solar nebula. That is why the terrestrial planets could not grow very large and could not exert large pull on hydrogen and helium gas. Also, the faster collisions among particles close to the Sun were more destructive on average. Even if the terrestrial planets had had hydrogen and helium, the Sun would have heated the gases and caused them to escape. Hence, solar terrestrial planets such as Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are dense small worlds composed mostly from 2%
Planetary mass Planetary mass Planetary mass is a measure of the mass of a planet-like object. Within the Solar System, planets are usually measured in the astronomical system of units, where the unit of mass is the solar mass (), the mass of the Sun. In the study of extrasolar planets, the unit of measure is typically the mass of Jupiter () for large gas giant planets, and the mass of Earth () for smaller rocky terrestrial planets. The mass of a planet within the Solar System is an adjusted parameter in the preparation of ephemerides. There are three variations of how