Question

Which of the following belongs to the Class of inferior Planets?
(A)Mercury.
(B)Venus.
(C)Pluto.
(D)Saturn.

Answer 1

Hint: Generally In the solar system the Planets are called inferior or interior with respect to Another planet.
The inferior planets are the planets that are closer to the sun than the earth, mercury, and Venus. Those are called the inferior planets.
The planets Mercury, Venus earth are called terrestrial planets because they have a rocky surface.

Complete step-by-step solution:
The name “inferior planets “ is generally connected with the geocentric system of the world, where the planets are situated below the sun.
Mercury and Venus are called the inferior planets because they lie closer to the sun than the earth. When viewed from Earth the mercury and Venus never get very far from the sun.
The Maximum elongation angle of mercury is $28^\circ $ and the Maximum elongation angle of Venus is $45^\circ $hence the mercury and venus are visible only after sunset or before sunrise.
When Mercury or Venus is between the sun and earth directly we can say it is an inferior conjunction. when mercury and Venus directly behind the sun as viewed from the earth we can say it is a Superior conjunction.
Hence, the answer is Option (A) Mercury belongs to the class of inferior planets.

Note:The inferior planets cannot cross the entire night time sky, we can only see in the early morning and early evening hours, up to the maximum angles of the western and eastern horizons. In the ancient period, the venus was known as both the evening star and morning star
The mythological name of Venus as evening star is Hesperus and the mythological name of Venus as the morning star is Lucifer.