*** Welcome to piglix ***

Planetary mnemonic


A planetary mnemonic refers to a phrase used to remember the planets and dwarf planets of the Solar System, with the order of words corresponding to increasing sidereal periods of the bodies. One simple visual mnemonic is to hold out both hands side-by-side with fingers spread and thumbs in the same direction, with the fingers of one hand representing the terrestrial planets, and the other hand the gas giants. The first thumb represents the Sun and asteroid belt, including Ceres, and the second thumb represents the asteroid belt and trans-Neptunian objects, including Pluto.

An English-language mnemonic which was current in the 1950s was "Men Very Easily Make Jugs Serve Useful Needs, Perhaps" (for Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto). The structure of this sentence suggests that it may have originated before Pluto's discovery, and can easily be trimmed back to reflect Pluto's demotion. Another common English-language mnemonic for many years was "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas". Other mnemonics include "My Very Energetic Mother Jumps Skateboards Under Nana's Patio" and "Mary's violet eyes make Johnny stay up nights plenty", as well as the apt "My Very Easy Method Just Shows Us Nine Planets", "My Very Efficient Memory Just Stores Up Nine Planets" and "My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets". Another variant which may predate Pluto's discovery is "Mary's violet eyes make Johnny stay up nights, pondering" and it, too, can be trimmed back. Yet another is "Many Volcanoes Emit Mulberry Jam Sandwiches Under Normal Pressure". However, many of these mnemonics were made obsolete by the 2006 definition of planet, which reclassified Pluto (as well as Ceres and Eris) as a dwarf planet.


...
Wikipedia

...