How many planets are there in our solar system?

Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun and eight official planets. These planets are, in order of distance from the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. There are also five dwarf planets, which are named Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eres. Pluto was considered the ninth official planet but in 2006 the IAU demoted pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet, in a move that was considered controversial at the time.