document_title: Solar System

question_text: name of the largest planet in the solar system

text: Solar System

text: Discovery and exploration

text: For most of history, humanity did not recognize or understand the concept of the Solar System. Most people up to the Late Middle Ages–Renaissance believed Earth to be stationary at the centre of the universe and categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects that moved through the sky. Although the Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos had speculated on a heliocentric reordering of the cosmos, Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to develop a mathematically predictive heliocentric system.[11][12] In the 17th century, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton developed an understanding of physics that led to the gradual acceptance of the idea that Earth moves around the Sun and that the planets are governed by the same physical laws that governed Earth. The invention of the telescope led to the discovery of further planets and moons. Improvements in the telescope and the use of unmanned spacecraft have enabled the investigation of geological phenomena, such as mountains, craters, seasonal meteorological phenomena, such as clouds, dust storms and ice caps on the other planets.

text: Structure and composition

text: The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun, a G2 main-sequence star that contains 99.86% of the system's known mass and dominates it gravitationally.[13] The Sun's four largest orbiting bodies, the giant planets, account for 99% of the remaining mass, with Jupiter and Saturn together comprising more than 90%. The remaining objects of the Solar System (including the four terrestrial planets, the dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and comets) together comprise less than 0.002% of the Solar System's total mass.[g]

text: Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic. The planets are very close to the ecliptic, whereas comets and Kuiper belt objects are frequently at significantly greater angles to it.[17][18] All the planets, and most other objects, orbit the Sun in the same direction that the Sun is rotating (counter-clockwise, as viewed from above Earth's north pole).[19] There are exceptions, such as Halley's Comet.

text: The overall structure of the charted regions of the Solar System consists of the Sun, four relatively small inner planets surrounded by a belt of mostly rocky asteroids, and four giant planets surrounded by the Kuiper belt of mostly icy objects. Astronomers sometimes informally divide this structure into separate regions. The inner Solar System includes the four terrestrial planets and the asteroid belt. The outer Solar System is beyond the asteroids, including the four giant planets.[20] Since the discovery of the Kuiper belt, the outermost parts of the Solar System are considered a distinct region consisting of the objects beyond Neptune.[21]

text: Most of the planets in the Solar System have secondary systems of their own, being orbited by planetary objects called natural satellites, or moons (two of which, Titan and Ganymede, are larger than the planet Mercury), and, in the case of the four giant planets, by planetary rings, thin bands of tiny particles that orbit them in unison. Most of the largest natural satellites are in synchronous rotation, with one face permanently turned toward their parent.

text: Kepler's laws of planetary motion describe the orbits of objects about the Sun. Following Kepler's laws, each object travels along an ellipse with the Sun at one focus. Objects closer to the Sun (with smaller semi-major axes) travel more quickly because they are more affected by the Sun's gravity. On an elliptical orbit, a body's distance from the Sun varies over the course of its year. A body's closest approach to the Sun is called its perihelion, whereas its most distant point from the Sun is called its aphelion. The orbits of the planets are nearly circular, but many comets, asteroids, and Kuiper belt objects follow highly elliptical orbits. The positions of the bodies in the Solar System can be predicted using numerical models.

text: Although the Sun dominates the system by mass, it accounts for only about 2% of the angular momentum.[22][23] The planets, dominated by Jupiter, account for most of the rest of the angular momentum due to the combination of their mass, orbit, and distance from the Sun, with a possibly significant contribution from comets.[22]

text: The Sun, which comprises nearly all the matter in the Solar System, is composed of roughly 98% hydrogen and helium.[24] Jupiter and Saturn, which comprise nearly all the remaining matter, are also primarily composed of hydrogen and helium.[25][26] A composition gradient exists in the Solar System, created by heat and light pressure from the Sun; those objects closer to the Sun, which are more affected by heat and light pressure, are composed of elements with high melting points. Objects farther from the Sun are composed largely of materials with lower melting points.[27] The boundary in the Solar System beyond which those volatile substances could condense is known as the frost line, and it lies at roughly 5 AU from the Sun.[5]

text: The objects of the inner Solar System are composed mostly of rock,[28] the collective name for compounds with high melting points, such as silicates, iron or nickel, that remained solid under almost all conditions in the protoplanetary nebula.[29] Jupiter and Saturn are composed mainly of gases, the astronomical term for materials with extremely low melting points and high vapour pressure, such as hydrogen, helium, and neon, which were always in the gaseous phase in the nebula.[29] Ices, like water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide,[28] have melting points up to a few hundred kelvins.[29] They can be found as ices, liquids, or gases in various places in the Solar System, whereas in the nebula they were either in the solid or gaseous phase.[29] Icy substances comprise the majority of the satellites of the giant planets, as well as most of Uranus and Neptune (the so-called "ice giants") and the numerous small objects that lie beyond Neptune's orbit.[28][30] Together, gases and ices are referred to as volatiles.[31]

text: Distances and scales

text: The distance from Earth to the Sun is 1 astronomical unit (150,000,000 km), or AU. For comparison, the radius of the Sun is 0.0047 AU (700,000 km). Thus, the Sun occupies 0.00001% (10−5 %) of the volume of a sphere with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, whereas Earth's volume is roughly one millionth (10−6) that of the Sun. Jupiter, the largest planet, is 5.2 astronomical units (780,000,000 km) from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU), whereas the most distant planet, Neptune, is 30 AU (4.5×109 km) from the Sun.

text: With a few exceptions, the farther a planet or belt is from the Sun, the larger the distance between its orbit and the orbit of the next nearer object to the Sun. For example, Venus is approximately 0.33 AU farther out from the Sun than Mercury, whereas Saturn is 4.3 AU out from Jupiter, and Neptune lies 10.5 AU out from Uranus. Attempts have been made to determine a relationship between these orbital distances (for example, the Titius–Bode law),[32] but no such theory has been accepted. The images at the beginning of this section show the orbits of the various constituents of the Solar System on different scales.

text: Some Solar System models attempt to convey the relative scales involved in the Solar System on human terms. Some are small in scale (and may be mechanical—called orreries)—whereas others extend across cities or regional areas.[33] The largest such scale model, the Sweden Solar System, uses the 110-metre (361-ft) Ericsson Globe in Stockholm as its substitute Sun, and, following the scale, Jupiter is a 7.5-metre (25-foot) sphere at Arlanda International Airport, 40 km (25 mi) away, whereas the farthest current object, Sedna, is a 10-cm (4-in) sphere in Luleå, 912 km (567 mi) away.[34][35]

text: If the Sun–Neptune distance is scaled to 100 metres, then the Sun would be about 3 cm in diameter (roughly two-thirds the diameter of a golf ball), the giant planets would be all smaller than about 3 mm, and Earth's diameter along with that of the other terrestrial planets would be smaller than a flea (0.3 mm) at this scale.[36]

text: Distances of selected bodies of the Solar System from the Sun. The left and right edges of each bar correspond to the perihelion and aphelion of the body, respectively, hence long bars denote high orbital eccentricity. The radius of the Sun is 0.7 million km, and the radius of Jupiter (the largest planet) is 0.07 million km, both too small to resolve on this image.

text: Formation and evolution

text: The Solar System formed 4.568 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a region within a large molecular cloud.[h] This initial cloud was likely several light-years across and probably birthed several stars.[37] As is typical of molecular clouds, this one consisted mostly of hydrogen, with some helium, and small amounts of heavier elements fused by previous generations of stars. As the region that would become the Solar System, known as the pre-solar nebula,[38] collapsed, conservation of angular momentum caused it to rotate faster. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hotter than the surrounding disc.[37] As the contracting nebula rotated faster, it began to flatten into a protoplanetary disc with a diameter of roughly 200 AU[37] and a hot, dense protostar at the centre.[39][40] The planets formed by accretion from this disc,[41] in which dust and gas gravitationally attracted each other, coalescing to form ever larger bodies. Hundreds of protoplanets may have existed in the early Solar System, but they either merged or were destroyed, leaving the planets, dwarf planets, and leftover minor bodies.

text: Due to their higher boiling points, only metals and silicates could exist in solid form in the warm inner Solar System close to the Sun, and these would eventually form the rocky planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Because metallic elements only comprised a very small fraction of the solar nebula, the terrestrial planets could not grow very large. The giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) formed further out, beyond the frost line, the point between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where material is cool enough for volatile icy compounds to remain solid. The ices that formed these planets were more plentiful than the metals and silicates that formed the terrestrial inner planets, allowing them to grow massive enough to capture large atmospheres of hydrogen and helium, the lightest and most abundant elements. Leftover debris that never became planets congregated in regions such as the asteroid belt, Kuiper belt, and Oort cloud. The Nice model is an explanation for the creation of these regions and how the outer planets could have formed in different positions and migrated to their current orbits through various gravitational interactions.

text: Within 50 million years, the pressure and density of hydrogen in the centre of the protostar became great enough for it to begin thermonuclear fusion.[42] The temperature, reaction rate, pressure, and density increased until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved: the thermal pressure equalled the force of gravity. At this point, the Sun became a main-sequence star.[43] The main-sequence phase, from beginning to end, will last about 10 billion years for the Sun compared to around two billion years for all other phases of the Sun's pre-remnant life combined.[44] Solar wind from the Sun created the heliosphere and swept away the remaining gas and dust from the protoplanetary disc into interstellar space, ending the planetary formation process. The Sun is growing brighter; early in its main-sequence life its brightness was 70% that of what it is today.[45]

text: The Solar System will remain roughly as we know it today until the hydrogen in the core of the Sun has been entirely converted to helium, which will occur roughly 5 billion years from now. This will mark the end of the Sun's main-sequence life. At this time, the core of the Sun will collapse, and the energy output will be much greater than at present. The outer layers of the Sun will expand to roughly 260 times its current diameter, and the Sun will become a red giant. Because of its vastly increased surface area, the surface of the Sun will be considerably cooler (2,600 K at its coolest) than it is on the main sequence.[44] The expanding Sun is expected to vaporize Mercury and render Earth uninhabitable. Eventually, the core will be hot enough for helium fusion; the Sun will burn helium for a fraction of the time it burned hydrogen in the core. The Sun is not massive enough to commence the fusion of heavier elements, and nuclear reactions in the core will dwindle. Its outer layers will move away into space, leaving a white dwarf, an extraordinarily dense object, half the original mass of the Sun but only the size of Earth.[46] The ejected outer layers will form what is known as a planetary nebula, returning some of the material that formed the Sun—but now enriched with heavier elements like carbon—to the interstellar medium.

text: Sun

text: The Sun is the Solar System's star and by far its most massive component. Its large mass (332,900 Earth masses)[47] produces temperatures and densities in its core high enough to sustain nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium, making it a main-sequence star.[48] This releases an enormous amount of energy, mostly radiated into space as electromagnetic radiation peaking in visible light.[49]

text: The Sun is a G2-type main-sequence star. Hotter main-sequence stars are more luminous. The Sun's temperature is intermediate between that of the hottest stars and that of the coolest stars. Stars brighter and hotter than the Sun are rare, whereas substantially dimmer and cooler stars, known as red dwarfs, make up 85% of the stars in the Milky Way.[50][51]

text: The Sun is a population I star; it has a higher abundance of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium ("metals" in astronomical parlance) than the older population II stars.[52] Elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were formed in the cores of ancient and exploding stars, so the first generation of stars had to die before the Universe could be enriched with these atoms. The oldest stars contain few metals, whereas stars born later have more. This high metallicity is thought to have been crucial to the Sun's development of a planetary system because the planets form from the accretion of "metals".[53]

text: Interplanetary medium

text: The vast majority of the Solar System consists of a near-vacuum known as the interplanetary medium. Along with light, the Sun radiates a continuous stream of charged particles (a plasma) known as the solar wind. This stream of particles spreads outwards at roughly 1.5 million kilometres per hour,[54] creating a tenuous atmosphere that permeates the interplanetary medium out to at least 100 AU (see § Heliosphere).[55] Activity on the Sun's surface, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, disturb the heliosphere, creating space weather and causing geomagnetic storms.[56] The largest structure within the heliosphere is the heliospheric current sheet, a spiral form created by the actions of the Sun's rotating magnetic field on the interplanetary medium.[57][58]

text: Earth's magnetic field stops its atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind.[59] Venus and Mars do not have magnetic fields, and as a result the solar wind is causing their atmospheres to gradually bleed away into space.[60] Coronal mass ejections and similar events blow a magnetic field and huge quantities of material from the surface of the Sun. The interaction of this magnetic field and material with Earth's magnetic field funnels charged particles into Earth's upper atmosphere, where its interactions create aurorae seen near the magnetic poles.

text: The heliosphere and planetary magnetic fields (for those planets that have them) partially shield the Solar System from high-energy interstellar particles called cosmic rays. The density of cosmic rays in the interstellar medium and the strength of the Sun's magnetic field change on very long timescales, so the level of cosmic-ray penetration in the Solar System varies, though by how much is unknown.[61]

text: The interplanetary medium is home to at least two disc-like regions of cosmic dust. The first, the zodiacal dust cloud, lies in the inner Solar System and causes the zodiacal light. It was likely formed by collisions within the asteroid belt brought on by gravitational interactions with the planets.[62] The second dust cloud extends from about 10 AU to about 40 AU, and was probably created by similar collisions within the Kuiper belt.[63][64]

text: Inner Solar System

text: The inner Solar System is the region comprising the terrestrial planets and the asteroid belt.[65] Composed mainly of silicates and metals, the objects of the inner Solar System are relatively close to the Sun; the radius of this entire region is less than the distance between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. This region is also within the frost line, which is a little less than 5 AU (about 700 million km) from the Sun.[66]

text: Inner planets

text: The four terrestrial or inner planets have dense, rocky compositions, few or no moons, and no ring systems. They are composed largely of refractory minerals, such as the silicates, which form their crusts and mantles, and metals, such as iron and nickel, which form their cores. Three of the four inner planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) have atmospheres substantial enough to generate weather; all have impact craters and tectonic surface features, such as rift valleys and volcanoes. The term inner planet should not be confused with inferior planet, which designates those planets that are closer to the Sun than Earth is (i.e. Mercury and Venus).

text: Mercury

text: Venus

text: Earth

text: Mars

text: Asteroid belt

text:
Sun
  Jupiter trojans
  Planetary orbit
  Asteroid belt
  Hilda asteroids
  NEOs (selection)

text: Asteroids except for the largest, Ceres, are classified as small Solar System bodies[e] and are composed mainly of refractory rocky and metallic minerals, with some ice.[79][80] They range from a few metres to hundreds of kilometres in size. Asteroids smaller than one meter are usually called meteoroids and micrometeoroids (grain-sized), depending on different, somewhat arbitrary definitions.

text: The asteroid belt occupies the orbit between Mars and Jupiter, between 2.3 and 3.3 AU from the Sun. It is thought to be remnants from the Solar System's formation that failed to coalesce because of the gravitational interference of Jupiter.[81] The asteroid belt contains tens of thousands, possibly millions, of objects over one kilometre in diameter.[82] Despite this, the total mass of the asteroid belt is unlikely to be more than a thousandth of that of Earth.[16] The asteroid belt is very sparsely populated; spacecraft routinely pass through without incident.

text: Ceres

text: Asteroid groups

text: Outer Solar System

text: The outer region of the Solar System is home to the giant planets and their large moons. The centaurs and many short-period comets also orbit in this region. Due to their greater distance from the Sun, the solid objects in the outer Solar System contain a higher proportion of volatiles, such as water, ammonia, and methane than those of the inner Solar System because the lower temperatures allow these compounds to remain solid.

text: Outer planets

text: The four outer planets, or giant planets (sometimes called Jovian planets), collectively make up 99% of the mass known to orbit the Sun.[g] Jupiter and Saturn are together over 400 times the mass of Earth and consist overwhelmingly of hydrogen and helium; Uranus and Neptune are far less massive (<20 Earth masses each) and are composed primarily of ices. For these reasons, some astronomers suggest they belong in their own category, "ice giants".[87] All four giant planets have rings, although only Saturn's ring system is easily observed from Earth. The term superior planet designates planets outside Earth's orbit and thus includes both the outer planets and Mars.

text: Jupiter

text: Saturn

text: Uranus

text: Neptune

text: Centaurs

text: The centaurs are icy comet-like bodies whose orbits have semi-major axes greater than Jupiter's (5.5 AU) and less than Neptune's (30 AU). The largest known centaur, 10199 Chariklo, has a diameter of about 250 km.[94] The first centaur discovered, 2060 Chiron, has also been classified as comet (95P) because it develops a coma just as comets do when they approach the Sun.[95]

text: Comets

text: Comets are small Solar System bodies,[e] typically only a few kilometres across, composed largely of volatile ices. They have highly eccentric orbits, generally a perihelion within the orbits of the inner planets and an aphelion far beyond Pluto. When a comet enters the inner Solar System, its proximity to the Sun causes its icy surface to sublimate and ionise, creating a coma: a long tail of gas and dust often visible to the naked eye.

text: Short-period comets have orbits lasting less than two hundred years. Long-period comets have orbits lasting thousands of years. Short-period comets are thought to originate in the Kuiper belt, whereas long-period comets, such as Hale–Bopp, are thought to originate in the Oort cloud. Many comet groups, such as the Kreutz Sungrazers, formed from the breakup of a single parent.[96] Some comets with hyperbolic orbits may originate outside the Solar System, but determining their precise orbits is difficult.[97] Old comets that have had most of their volatiles driven out by solar warming are often categorised as asteroids.[98]

text: Trans-Neptunian region

text: Beyond the orbit of Neptune lies the area of the "trans-Neptunian region", with the doughnut-shaped Kuiper belt, home of Pluto and several other dwarf planets, and an overlapping disc of scattered objects, which is tilted toward the plane of the Solar System and reaches much further out than the Kuiper belt. The entire region is still largely unexplored. It appears to consist overwhelmingly of many thousands of small worlds—the largest having a diameter only a fifth that of Earth and a mass far smaller than that of the Moon—composed mainly of rock and ice. This region is sometimes described as the "third zone of the Solar System", enclosing the inner and the outer Solar System.[99]

text: Kuiper belt

text:
Sun
  Jupiter trojans
  Giant planets
  Kuiper belt
  Scattered disc
  Neptune trojans

text: The Kuiper belt is a great ring of debris similar to the asteroid belt, but consisting mainly of objects composed primarily of ice.[100] It extends between 30 and 50 AU from the Sun. Though it is estimated to contain anything from dozens to thousands of dwarf planets, it is composed mainly of small Solar System bodies. Many of the larger Kuiper belt objects, such as Quaoar, Varuna, and Orcus, may prove to be dwarf planets with further data. There are estimated to be over 100,000 Kuiper belt objects with a diameter greater than 50 km, but the total mass of the Kuiper belt is thought to be only a tenth or even a hundredth the mass of Earth.[15] Many Kuiper belt objects have multiple satellites,[101] and most have orbits that take them outside the plane of the ecliptic.[102]

text: The Kuiper belt can be roughly divided into the "classical" belt and the resonances.[100] Resonances are orbits linked to that of Neptune (e.g. twice for every three Neptune orbits, or once for every two). The first resonance begins within the orbit of Neptune itself. The classical belt consists of objects having no resonance with Neptune, and extends from roughly 39.4 AU to 47.7 AU.[103] Members of the classical Kuiper belt are classified as cubewanos, after the first of their kind to be discovered, (15760) 1992 QB1, and are still in near primordial, low-eccentricity orbits.[104]

text: Pluto and Charon

text: Makemake and Haumea

text: Scattered disc

text: The scattered disc, which overlaps the Kuiper belt but extends much further outwards, is thought to be the source of short-period comets. Scattered-disc objects are thought to have been ejected into erratic orbits by the gravitational influence of Neptune's early outward migration. Most scattered disc objects (SDOs) have perihelia within the Kuiper belt but aphelia far beyond it (some more than 150 AU from the Sun). SDOs' orbits are also highly inclined to the ecliptic plane and are often almost perpendicular to it. Some astronomers consider the scattered disc to be merely another region of the Kuiper belt and describe scattered disc objects as "scattered Kuiper belt objects".[109] Some astronomers also classify centaurs as inward-scattered Kuiper belt objects along with the outward-scattered residents of the scattered disc.[110]

text: Eris

text: Farthest regions

text: The point at which the Solar System ends and interstellar space begins is not precisely defined because its outer boundaries are shaped by two separate forces: the solar wind and the Sun's gravity. The limit of the solar wind's influence is roughly four times Pluto's distance from the Sun; this heliopause, the outer boundary of the heliosphere, is considered the beginning of the interstellar medium.[55] The Sun's Hill sphere, the effective range of its gravitational dominance, is thought to extend up to a thousand times farther and encompasses the theorized Oort cloud.[112]

text: Heliosphere

text: The heliosphere is a stellar-wind bubble, a region of space dominated by the Sun, which radiates at roughly 400 km/s its solar wind, a stream of charged particles, until it collides with the wind of the interstellar medium.

text: The collision occurs at the termination shock, which is roughly 80–100 AU from the Sun upwind of the interstellar medium and roughly 200 AU from the Sun downwind.[113] Here the wind slows dramatically, condenses and becomes more turbulent,[113] forming a great oval structure known as the heliosheath. This structure is thought to look and behave very much like a comet's tail, extending outward for a further 40 AU on the upwind side but tailing many times that distance downwind; evidence from Cassini and Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft has suggested that it is forced into a bubble shape by the constraining action of the interstellar magnetic field.[114]

text: The outer boundary of the heliosphere, the heliopause, is the point at which the solar wind finally terminates and is the beginning of interstellar space.[55] Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are reported to have passed the termination shock and entered the heliosheath, at 94 and 84 AU from the Sun, respectively.[115][116] Voyager 1 is reported to have crossed the heliopause in August 2012.[117]

text: The shape and form of the outer edge of the heliosphere is likely affected by the fluid dynamics of interactions with the interstellar medium as well as solar magnetic fields prevailing to the south, e.g. it is bluntly shaped with the northern hemisphere extending 9 AU farther than the southern hemisphere.[113] Beyond the heliopause, at around 230 AU, lies the bow shock, a plasma "wake" left by the Sun as it travels through the Milky Way.[118]

text:
inner Solar System and Jupiter
outer Solar System and Pluto
orbit of Sedna (detached object)
inner part of the Oort Cloud

text: Due to a lack of data, conditions in local interstellar space are not known for certain. It is expected that NASA's Voyager spacecraft, as they pass the heliopause, will transmit valuable data on radiation levels and solar wind to Earth.[119] How well the heliosphere shields the Solar System from cosmic rays is poorly understood. A NASA-funded team has developed a concept of a "Vision Mission" dedicated to sending a probe to the heliosphere.[120][121]

text: Detached objects

text: 90377 Sedna (520 AU average) is a large, reddish object with a gigantic, highly elliptical orbit that takes it from about 76 AU at perihelion to 940 AU at aphelion and takes 11,400 years to complete. Mike Brown, who discovered the object in 2003, asserts that it cannot be part of the scattered disc or the Kuiper belt because its perihelion is too distant to have been affected by Neptune's migration. He and other astronomers consider it to be the first in an entirely new population, sometimes termed "distant detached objects" (DDOs), which also may include the object 2000 CR105, which has a perihelion of 45 AU, an aphelion of 415 AU, and an orbital period of 3,420 years.[122] Brown terms this population the "inner Oort cloud" because it may have formed through a similar process, although it is far closer to the Sun.[123] Sedna is very likely a dwarf planet, though its shape has yet to be determined. The second unequivocally detached object, with a perihelion farther than Sedna's at roughly 81 AU, is 2012 VP113, discovered in 2012. Its aphelion is only half that of Sedna's, at 400–500 AU.[124][125]

text: Oort cloud

text: The Oort cloud is a hypothetical spherical cloud of up to a trillion icy objects that is thought to be the source for all long-period comets and to surround the Solar System at roughly 50,000 AU (around 1 light-year (ly)), and possibly to as far as 100,000 AU (1.87 ly). It is thought to be composed of comets that were ejected from the inner Solar System by gravitational interactions with the outer planets. Oort cloud objects move very slowly, and can be perturbed by infrequent events, such as collisions, the gravitational effects of a passing star, or the galactic tide, the tidal force exerted by the Milky Way.[126][127]

text: Boundaries

text: Much of the Solar System is still unknown. The Sun's gravitational field is estimated to dominate the gravitational forces of surrounding stars out to about two light years (125,000 AU). Lower estimates for the radius of the Oort cloud, by contrast, do not place it farther than 50,000 AU.[128] Despite discoveries such as Sedna, the region between the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud, an area tens of thousands of AU in radius, is still virtually unmapped. There are also ongoing studies of the region between Mercury and the Sun.[129] Objects may yet be discovered in the Solar System's uncharted regions.

text: Currently, the furthest known objects, such as Comet West, have aphelia around 70,000 AU from the Sun, but as the Oort cloud becomes better known, this may change.

text: Galactic context

text: The Solar System is located in the Milky Way, a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter of about 100,000 light-years containing about 100 billion stars.[130] The Sun resides in one of the Milky Way's outer spiral arms, known as the Orion–Cygnus Arm or Local Spur.[131] The Sun lies between 25,000 and 28,000 light-years from the Galactic Centre,[132] and its speed within the Milky Way is about 220 km/s, so that it completes one revolution every 225–250 million years. This revolution is known as the Solar System's galactic year.[133] The solar apex, the direction of the Sun's path through interstellar space, is near the constellation Hercules in the direction of the current location of the bright star Vega.[134] The plane of the ecliptic lies at an angle of about 60° to the galactic plane.[i]

text: The Solar System's location in the Milky Way is a factor in the evolutionary history of life on Earth. Its orbit is close to circular, and orbits near the Sun are at roughly the same speed as that of the spiral arms.[136][137] Therefore, the Sun passes through arms only rarely. Because spiral arms are home to a far larger concentration of supernovae, gravitational instabilities, and radiation that could disrupt the Solar System, this has given Earth long periods of stability for life to evolve.[136] The Solar System also lies well outside the star-crowded environs of the galactic centre. Near the centre, gravitational tugs from nearby stars could perturb bodies in the Oort cloud and send many comets into the inner Solar System, producing collisions with potentially catastrophic implications for life on Earth. The intense radiation of the galactic centre could also interfere with the development of complex life.[136] Even at the Solar System's current location, some scientists have speculated that recent supernovae may have adversely affected life in the last 35,000 years, by flinging pieces of expelled stellar core towards the Sun, as radioactive dust grains and larger, comet-like bodies.[138]

text: Neighbourhood

text: The Solar System is in the Local Interstellar Cloud or Local Fluff. It is thought to be near the neighbouring G-Cloud but it is not known if the Solar System is embedded in the Local Interstellar Cloud, or if it is in the region where the Local Interstellar Cloud and G-Cloud are interacting.[139][140] The Local Interstellar Cloud is an area of denser cloud in an otherwise sparse region known as the Local Bubble, an hourglass-shaped cavity in the interstellar medium roughly 300 light-years (ly) across. The bubble is suffused with high-temperature plasma, that suggests it is the product of several recent supernovae.[141]

text: There are relatively few stars within ten light-years of the Sun. The closest is the triple star system Alpha Centauri, which is about 4.4 light-years away. Alpha Centauri A and B are a closely tied pair of Sun-like stars, whereas the small red dwarf, Proxima Centauri, orbits the pair at a distance of 0.2 light-year. In 2016, a potentially habitable exoplanet was confirmed to be orbiting Proxima Centauri, called Proxima Centauri b, the closest confirmed exoplanet to the Sun.[142] The stars next closest to the Sun are the red dwarfs Barnard's Star (at 5.9 ly), Wolf 359 (7.8 ly), and Lalande 21185 (8.3 ly).

text: The largest nearby star is Sirius, a bright main-sequence star roughly 8.6 light-years away and roughly twice the Sun's mass and that is orbited by a white dwarf, Sirius B. The nearest brown dwarfs are the binary Luhman 16 system at 6.6 light-years. Other systems within ten light-years are the binary red-dwarf system Luyten 726-8 (8.7 ly) and the solitary red dwarf Ross 154 (9.7 ly).[143] The closest solitary Sun-like star to the Solar System is Tau Ceti at 11.9 light-years. It has roughly 80% of the Sun's mass but only 60% of its luminosity.[144] The closest known free-floating planetary-mass object to the Sun is WISE 0855−0714,[145] an object with a mass less than 10 Jupiter masses roughly 7 light-years away.

text: Comparison with extrasolar systems

text: Compared to other planetary systems the Solar System stands out in lacking planets interior to the orbit of Mercury.[146][147] The known Solar System also lacks super-Earths (Planet Nine could be a super-Earth beyond the known Solar System).[146] Uncommonly, it has only small rocky planets and large gas giants; elsewhere planets of intermediate size are typical—both rocky and gas—so there is no "gap" as seen between the size of Earth and of Neptune (with a radius 3.8 times as large). Also, these super-Earths have closer orbits than Mercury.[146] This led to hypothesis that all planetary systems start with many close-in planets, and that typically a sequence of their collisions causes consolidation of mass into few larger planets, but in case of the Solar System the collisions caused their destruction and ejection.[148][149]

text: The orbits of Solar System planets are nearly circular. Compared to other systems, they have smaller orbital eccentricity.[146] Although there are attempts to explain it partly with a bias in the radial-velocity detection method and partly with long interactions of a quite high number of planets, the exact causes remain undetermined.[146][150]

text: Visual summary

text: This section is a sampling of Solar System bodies, selected for size and quality of imagery, and sorted by volume. Some omitted objects are larger than the ones included here, notably Eris, because these have not been imaged in high quality.

text:
Solar System

Sun
(star)
Jupiter
(planet)
Saturn
(planet)
Uranus
(planet)
Neptune
(planet)
Earth
(planet)
Venus
(planet)

Mars
(planet)
Ganymede
(moon of Jupiter)
Titan
(moon of Saturn)
Mercury
(planet)
Callisto
(moon of Jupiter)
Io
(moon of Jupiter)
Moon
(moon of Earth)

Europa
(moon of Jupiter)
Triton
(moon of Neptune)
Pluto
(Kuiper belt object)
Titania
(moon of Uranus)
Rhea
(moon of Saturn)
Oberon
(moon of Uranus)
Iapetus
(moon of Saturn)

Charon
(moon of Pluto)
Umbriel
(moon of Uranus)
Ariel
(moon of Uranus)
Dione
(moon of Saturn)
Tethys
(moon of Saturn)
Ceres
(belt asteroid)
Vesta
(belt asteroid)

Enceladus
(moon of Saturn)
Miranda
(moon of Uranus)
Proteus
(moon of Neptune)
Mimas
(moon of Saturn)
Hyperion
(moon of Saturn)
Phoebe
(moon of Saturn)
Janus
(moon of Saturn)

Epimetheus
(moon of Saturn)
Lutetia
(belt asteroid)
Prometheus
(moon of Saturn)
Pandora
(moon of Saturn)
Mathilde
(belt asteroid)
Helene
(moon of Saturn)
Ida
(belt asteroid)

Phobos
(moon of Mars)
Deimos
(moon of Mars)

This box:

view
talk
edit

text:
Voyager 1 views the Solar System from over 6 billion km from Earth.

Venus, Earth ("Pale Blue Dot"), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (13 September 1996).


document_title: Legal status of tattooing in the United States

question_text: how old do you have to be to get a tattoo in west virginia

root

text: In the United States, there is no federal law regulating the practice of tattooing. However, all 50 states and the District of  Missouri  have statutory laws requiring a person receiving a tattoo be 12 years or older.  This is partially based on the legal principle that a minor cannot enter into a legal contract or otherwise render informed consent for a procedure.  Most states permit a person under the age of 12 to receive a tattoo with permission of a parent or guardian, but some states outright prohibit tattooing under a certain age regardless of permission, with the exception of medical necessity (such as markings placed for radiation therapy).

tag: p

text: In all jurisdictions, individual tattooists may also choose to place additional restrictions based on their own moral feelings, such as refusing any clients under a specific age even with parental consent despite it being legal, or limiting the type and/or location of where they are willing to tattoo (such as refusing any work around intimate parts of the body).  They may additionally refuse to perform specific artwork, including if they merely find it inappropriate or offensive, or refuse to work on a client that they suspect may be intoxicated.  Artists sometimes claim their personal business restrictions are a matter of law even when it is not true, so as to avoid arguments with clients.

text:
Legal Restrictions on Tattooing & Body Modification by State

State

Minimum Age (with parent/guardian consent)

Form of Parent/Guardian Consent

Notes & Exceptions

Intoxicated/Impaired Individuals

Area of Law/Type of Penalty

Licensing & Regulation

Relevant Statute(s) and Rules

Alabama

none specified[1]

informed written consent, signed in presence of the artist/service provider or their agent[1][2]

Ear piercing exempt from Alabama body art laws & rules.[2][3]

cannot be tattooed, branded, or pierced[1][2]

Violations of Alabama Tattoo & Body Piercing laws are a class c misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $100 and/or up to 90 days imprisonment for each violation.[4]

Alabama's Department of Public Health licenses Tattoo, body piercing, & body art facilities, and sets standards for their operation.[5]
Individual tattoo artists, piercers, etc. require a permit.[2]

Ala. Code § 22-1-17A[3][6]
State Board of Health rules on Body Art Practices and Facilities.[2]

Alaska

18 (piercing excepted)[7]

parent/guardian must both give written consent and be present during the procedure[7]

Minors may be pierced with parental consent [7]

no restriction[8]

Alaska Stat. § 08.13.217[7]

Arizona

none specified[9]

parent/guardian must be physically present[9]

Minors can have their ears pierced with the written or verbal consent of a parent/guardian, can have procedures prescribed by a health care provider.[9]

no restriction[9]

Violations are a class 6 felony.[9]

There are no health regulations for tattoo shops in Arizona. [10]

Tattoos. Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 13-3721[9]

Arkansas

16[11]

parent/guardian must both give written consent and be physically present[12]

none specified[12]

cannot be tattooed, branded, or pierced.[12]

Ark. Stat. Ann. §§ 20-27-1501 et seq.[12]

California

18 (piercing excepted)[13][14]

parent/guardian must be present during procedure

Minors may have their ears pierced with parental consent.[15]  They may be pierced elsewhere with parental consent, but not on their genitals or nipples. Permanent cosmetics are permitted on nipples, when done by a cosmetic technician and with parental consent.[14]

no restriction

Body Art. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 119300 to 119328[6][15]
Cal. Penal Code 653[13]

Colorado

18 Express written consent of parent or guardian[16]

parent/guardian must be present during procedure

Persons who are "noticeably impaired" cannot have body art procedures[16]

Body Artists. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 25-4-2101 to 2103[6]

Connecticut

none specified

permission of parent or guardian[17][18]

Minors may have their ears pierced without parental consent[17]
Tattooing may only be performed by physicians, or by registered nurses & technicians working under the supervision of a physician.[18]

no restrictions

Conn. Gen. Stat. §19a-92a,[6][18]
Conn. Gen. Stat. §19a-92g[6][17]

District of Columbia

18 (ear piercing excepted)[19]

written consent (for ear piercing)[19]

minors may have their ears pierced with written parental consent[19]

no restrictions[19]

Body Artists. DC Code § 47-2853.76d[6][19]

Delaware

18[20]

notarized written consent to the specific procedure[20]

none specified[20]

cannot be tattooed, branded, or body pierced[20]

Del. Code Ann. Title 11, Ch 5 §1114(a)[6][20]
Del. Code Ann. Title 16, Ch 2 §122(3)(w)[6]

Florida

16[21]

Must be accompanied by parent or guardian who can show proof of guardianship, both parent and minor must present photo ID, and a consent form must be notarized.[21]

for medical or dental purposes by a licensed physician or dentist[21]

no restriction

Fla. Stat. § 381.00787[6]
Fla. Stat. §381.0775 et seq.[6]
Fla. Stat. §381.075[6]

Georgia

18 (body piercing excepted)[22]

For body piercing: prior written consent of parent/guardian[23]

Minors may have their ears pierced without parental consent[23]
Minors may be body pierced with written parental consent[23]
Physicians and Osteopaths or technicians working under their direct supervision can give minors tattoos or produce scars for "medical or cosmetic purposes."[22]
No one can be tattooed within an inch of their eye socket.[24]

no restrictions

Ga. Code § 31-40-1 to 31-40-10[6]
Ga. Code § 16-12-5[6]
Ga. Code § 16-5-71.1[6]

Hawaii

none specified[25]

written consent of parent/guardian[25]

Hawaii Rev. Stat. § 321-13[6]
Hawaii Rev. Stat. § 321-379[6]

Idaho

14[26]

Written informed consent of parent/guardian, executed in the presence of the person performing the procedure, or their agent/employee.[26]

Minors can have their ears pierced without parental consent.[6]
Piercing for medical procedures exempt.[6]

no restrictions

Idaho Code § 18-1523 (2004)[6]

Illinois

18 (body piercings excepted)[27]

Written consent of parent/guardian (for body piercings)[27]

Minors cannot be present in places where tattooing or body piercing is done except in the presence of a parent/guardian.[27]
Minors can have their ears pierced without parent/guardian consent.[27]

no restrictions

Ill. Stat. 720 §5/12-10.1[6]
Ill.  Stat. 410 §54/1 t0 54/999[6]

Indiana

none specified[28]

Parent/guardian must both be present during the procedure and provide written permission.[28]

Minors may have their ears pierced without parental consent.[28]

no restrictions

Ind. Code Ann. §35-42-2-7[6][28]
Ind. Code Ann. §16-19-3-4.1[6][29]

Iowa

18[30]

n/a - minors cannot be tattooed[30]

Body piercing is not regulated by state law in Iowa, however county or city laws may regulate it.[31]

no restrictions

Iowa Code §135.37[6]
Iowa Code §135.37[6]

Kansas

16[32]

Parent/guardian must give written consent, written consent must be notarized, and the parent/guardian must be present during the procedure.[32]

Minors may have their ears pierced[33]

no restrictions

Kan. Stat. Ann.  §65-1953[6]
Kan. Stat. Ann.  §65-1940 to 65-1954[6]

Kentucky

16

Parent/guardian must give written, notarized consent.[34]

none (ear piercing also requires written, notarized consent).[35]

Ky. Rev. Stat. §211.760[6]
Ky. Rev. Stat. §194A.050; 211.760[6]

Louisiana

16

Parent or guardian must consent, and their presence during the procedure is required for tattoos, but not for body piercings.[36]

no restrictions

La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §14:93.2[6]
La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 40:2831 et seq.[6]

Maine

18 (piercings excepted)[37]

For body piercings: prior legal consent of parent/guardian.[38]

Maine law does not require parent/guardian consent for ear piercing[39]

no restrictions

Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. Title 32 § 4201-4329[6]

Maryland

none specified[40]

written consent, which must be retained for 3 years.

Piercing of the ear lobe is exempt[41]

no restriction

Health Department Regulations

A license is not required, but any person performing tattooing or piercing must comply with all the relevant health code regulations[40]

COMAR 10.06.01.02 and 10.06.01.06

Massachusetts

18 (except body piercing other than genitalia)[42]

Minors cannot receive tattoo, branding, or scarification at all.  For piercing of areas other than the genitalia, a parent may provide identification and sign the consent document.[42]

Physicians performing for treatment reasons and ear piercing are exempt from regulation.[42]

no restriction

County Health Department regulates body art, but all follow a model regulation set by the state.

Artists must have a permit, and establishments are subject to following specific health department regulations[42]

Model Regulations for Body Art Establishments[42]

Michigan

none specified[43]

Written, informed consent of parent/guardian.  Must be executed (signed) in the presences of the person performing the procedure, or their employee.[43]

cannot be tattooed, branded, or body pierced.[43]

Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.13101 to 333.13112[44]

Minnesota

18 (piercings excepted)[45]

For piercings: presence of parent/guardian and a consent form are both required.[45]

Minors cannot be tattooed.  They can be body pierced, but not in the nipples or genitals.  Branding, scarification, suspension, subdermal implantation, microdermal, and tongue bifurcation are also prohibited for minors.[45]

cannot have any body art procedures.[45]

Minnesota Statutes 146B.07[45]

Mississippi

18

n/a - minors cannot be tattooed

piercing also prohibited except for the outer perimeter or lobe of the ear.

no restriction

Miss.Code Ann. §73-61

Missouri

none specified[46]

For both piercings and tattoos, parent/guardian must sign written consent in the presence of the person performing the procedure, or their employee.[46]

cannot be tattooed, branded or body pierced.[46]

violations are a misdemeanor, punishable with a fine of up to $500 (more for repeat offenses)[46]

The state  director of the division of professional registration licenses all body artists, and sets rules & regulations for the operation of body art establishments.[47]

Mo. Rev. Stat. §324.520[46]

Montana

none specified[48]

Parent or guardian must give "explicit, in-person" consent.[48] Montana administrative rules also require that the parent/guardian be present throughout the procedure.[49]

cannot be tattooed or body pierced.[49]

A person who tattoos or body pierces a minor without parent/guardian consent is guilty of Unlawful transactions with children, punishable by a fine of up to $500 or six months in county jail, or both.[48]
Other violations of Montana body art laws are a misdemeanor, with punishments ranging from a fine of $50–100 for a first offense to $300 and/or 90 days in county jail for third and subsequent offense.[50]

Montana's Department of Health and Safety licenses and regulates body art establishments.[51] Local health boards may establish their own licensing and regulatory schemes in lieu of the state department's.[52]

Mont. Code Ann. §45-5-623[48]
Mont. Code Ann. §50-48-101 to 110[53]
Mont. Code Ann. §50-48-201 to 209[54]

Nebraska

none specified[55]

written consent, must be present during procedure

Piercing does not include the external parts of the ear[56]

No restrictions

Nebraska Revised Statute 38-1008, 38-1009, 38-1010, 38-1011, 38-1060, 38-10,165

Nevada

n/a[6]

n/a[6]

Nevada state law does not regulate tattoos, piercings, or other body art. Regional health districts may regulate the practice.  The southern Nevada Health District, for example, does not allow minors below the age of 14 to be tattooed, and requires a parent or guardian to provide written consent and be present during the procedure for 14- to 18-year-olds.  The southern Nevada district also bans tattoos on those who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.[57]

n/a[6]

n/a[6]

New Hampshire

18 (piercings excepted)[58]

For piercings: parent/guardian must both sign written consent and be present during the procedure.

Minors cannot be tattooed or branded.  They may be pierced with parent/guardian consent.[58] Minors may have their ears pierced without parent/guardian consent.[59]

no restrictions

N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 314[6]

New Jersey

none specified[60]

written permission of parent/guardian is required for tattooing and body piercing.[60]

Parent/guardian must be present and sign written consent for ear piercings as well as for body piercing.  Minors cannot have genital piercings even with parent/guardian consent.[61]

no restrictions

no restrictions

no restrictions

N.J. Stat. Ann. §2C:40-21
N.J.A.C. 8:27-1 et seq.
N.J. Stat. Ann. §26-1A-7[6]

New Mexico

none specified[62]

Written consent and presence during the procedure.

Medical procedures by physicians and ear piercing are exempt[63]

no restrictions

Administrative Regulations set by the Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists

All body artists are required to be licensed through the state, and are subject to regulations from the Board

Body Art Safe Practices Act. N.M. Stat. Ann. § 61-17B et seq.,[63] N.M. Administrative Code 16.36 et seq.[62]

New York

18 (piercings excepted) [64]

Minors cannot be tattooed with parent/guardian consent. For piercings: parent/guardian must give written consent, signed in presence of the body artist or body art establishment owner.[65]

Written parental consent is not required for ear piercings.[66]

no restrictions

New York Public Health Law, Article 4-A[6][65]
N.Y. Public Health Law §460-466[6]
N.Y. Penal Law § 260.21[6]

North Carolina

18 (piercings excepted)[67]

Minors cannot be tattooed, even with parent/guardian consent. "Prior consent" of parent/guardian is required for body piercings.[67]

Minors may have their ears pierced without parental consent.[67]

no restrictions

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 130A-283[68]
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-400[69]

North Dakota

none specified[70]

Parent/guardian must be present during the procedure and give written consent.[70]

cannot get tattoos or other body art[71]

N.D. Code §23-01-35[72]
N.D. Code §12.1-31-13[6][70]

Ohio

none specified[73]

Parent/guardian must both sign a consent form and "appear in person at the business at the time the procedure is performed."[73]

none - parent/guardian consent and presence is also required for ear piercings.[73]

no restrictions

Ohio Rev. Code Ann. §3730.01 to 3730.99[6][73]

Oklahoma

18 (piercings excepted)[74]

Minors cannot be tattooed, even with parent/guardian consent.  For piercings: parent/guardian must both give written consent and be present during the procedure.[74]

Ear piercing is not governed/restricted by Oklahoma law.[74]
Scleral tattooing is illegal.[74]

cannot be tattooed.[74]

Okla. Stat. Title 21 §842.1, 842.2, 842.3[6]

Oregon

18 (piercings excepted)[75]

For piercings: parent/guardian must give written consent and present proof of identity.[76][77]

Minors can only be tattooed with the authorization of a physician.[75]
Scarification and dermal implants are prohibited[78]
Persons with sunburns or skin diseases or disorders cannot be tattooed or pierced.[75][77]
Minors cannot be pierced on the genitals or nipples, even with parent/guardian consent.[76]
Piercing on testes, deep shaft (corpus cavernosa), uvula, eyelids and sub-clavicle are all prohibited.[77]

cannot be tattooed or pierced.[75][77]

Violations of Oregon body art laws are a misdemeanor.[79]
Violations of Health Licensing Office rules are fined (various amounts).[80]

Both body artists and body art establishments are licensed by the Oregon Health Licensing Office.[81] With the assistance of a Board of Body Art practitioners, the Health Licensing Office also sets detailed rules and regulations for body art.[82]

Or. Rev. Stat. § 690.350 et seq
Or. Rev. Stat. § 690.401 to 410
Or. Rev. Stat. § 679.500[6]
Health Licensing Office Rules, especially Divisions 900, 905, 915 & 920[82]

Pennsylvania

none specified[83]

parent/guardian must both give consent and be present during the procedure.[83]

no restrictions

Pa. Cons. Stat. Title 18 § 6311[6][83]

Rhode Island

18 (piercings excepted)[84][85]

Minors cannot be tattooed.[84]  For piercings: parent/guardian must both give consent and be present for the procedure.[85]

no restrictions

Tattooing a minor is a criminal offense (misdemeanor), maximum fine $300[84]

Tattooing and body art are regulated by the department of health, artists must be registered.[85]

RI Gen L § 23-1-39[85]
RI Gen L § 11-9-15[84]

South Carolina

18 (piercings excepted)[86][87]

Minors cannot be tattooed.[86] For piercings: parent/guardian must either give written, notarized consent or be present during the procedure.[87]

Head, face, and neck tattoos are illegal.[86]

cannot be tattooed or body pierced[86][88]

Under the Health Code, persons violating restrictions on tattooing and body piercing are guilty of a misdemeanor.  Upon conviction, they may be fined up to $2500 or imprisoned for a year, or both.[86][87]

Tattoo and body piercing facilities are regulated by the Department of Health and Environmental Control.  Tattoo facilities are licensed, body piercing facilities require a permit, and artists must be registered[89][90]

S.C. Code § 44-32-10 to 44-32-120[88]
S.C. Code § 44-34-10 to 44-34-110[91]

South Dakota

none specified[92]

Parent/guardian must sign a consent form.[92]

cannot be tattooed or pierced[93][94]

Tattooing a minor is a class 2 misdemeanor.[95]

Tattooing and Body Piercing are governed by Department of Health rules.[96] Municipalities may set stricter regulations, and have the authority to license body artists.[95]

S.D. Codified Laws Ann. §26-10-19[92]
S.D. Laws § 9-34-17[95]

Tennessee

18 (piercings excepted)[97][98]

For tattoos that cover an existing tattoo (see Notes & Exceptions): Parent/Guardian must be present during the procedure.[97]
For piercings: Parent/Guardian must give written consent, be present during the procedure.[98]

Minors over the age of sixteen may be tattooed to cover up an existing tattoo, with parent/guardian consent.[97]

Minors who lie about their age to be tattooed are guilty of a "delinquent act," are required to pay a fine of $50–$250 and serve at least 20 hours of community service.[97]
Tattooing a minor is a class a misdemeanor,[97] breach of body piercing law is a class b misdemeanor.[99]

Tattoo artists and body piercers are licensed by the state department of health, tattoo shops require a certificate from the local health department.[100][101]

Tenn. Code §§ 62-38-201-310[102]

Texas

18 (piercings excepted)[103][104]

For body piercings and for covering existing tattoos (see Notes & Exceptions): Parent/guardian must be present during procedure, sign an affidavit[103][104]

Ear piercing is exempt from body piercing statutes[105]
Minors may, with parent/guardian consent, be tattooed to cover up an existing tattoo that has offensive, gang-related, or drug-related content, or "other words, symbols, or markings that the person's parent or guardian considers would be in the best interest of the person to cover"[103]
Tongue splitting prohibited.[106]

Cannot be tattooed or pierced.[103][107]

Misrepresenting one's age to get a tattoo, or to get a piercing without parental consent, is a class B misdemeanor[103][104]
Violations of Texas tattooing & body piercing statute are a Class A misdemeanor, with each day of violation counting as a separate offense.[108]
Health Commissioner can impose a fine of up to $5000 on artists & shops for each violation[109]

Tattoo artists and body piercers must be registered with the Texas Department of Health[110] Tattoo and body piercing shops must be licensed[111]

Texas Health and Safety Code Ann. §146[112]

Utah

none specified[113]

Parent/guardian must be present during the procedure, give written permission, and provide proof of identity.[113]

Parental consent not required by law for ear piercing[113]

Tattooing or body piercing a minor is a class b misdemeanor, shops can be fined up to $1000 for each violation.[113]

Utah Code Ann. §76-10-2201[6]

Vermont

none specified[114]

Tattooists and body piercers must be registered.[114]

Vt. Stat. Ann. Title 26 §4101 to 4109[6][115]

Virginia

none specified[116]

Parent/Guardian must be present during the procedure.[116]

Virginia law does not limit minors' ability to have their ears pierced.[116]

Tattooing or body piercing a minor is a class 1 misdemeanor[116]

Tattoo artists and body piercers, as well as the operators of tattoo and body piercing establishments, are licensed by the state.[117][118]
Civic/local governments are empowered to regulate tattoo and body piercing establishments.[119]

Va. Code §54.1-700 et seq.
Va. Code §15.2-912
Va. Code § 18.2-371.3.[6]

Washington

18 (piercings excepted)[120]

cannot have tattoos, body piercings, or other body art.[121]

Wash. Code §26.28.085[120]
Wash. Code § 18.300[122]
Wash. Code § 246-145-001 to 060[123]
Wash. Code §70.54[124]

West Virginia

none specified[125]

parent/guardian must give written consent[125]

All persons receiving a tattoo must attest they are not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.[125]

Tattoo shop owners and body piercing studios must register with local board of health, and must be registered as a business with the state[126][127][128]

W. Va. Code §16-37
W. Va. Code §16-38[129]

Wisconsin

18[130]

n/a (tattooing not permitted under 18)

Physicians in the course of professional practice are exempt

no restriction

Tattooing a minor or even offering to do so is subject to a fine of up to $200

Artists must be satisfy training requirements and obtain a license from the health department. Establishments are subject to inspection and licensing[131]

Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations 948.70 and 252.235

Wyoming

none specified[132]

Verbal consent, presence during procedure.[132]

Procedures performed under the supervision of a licensed physician, and piercing of the ear, do not count as body art for this law.

no restriction[132]

Misdemeanor criminal offense, punishable by fine and prison time[132]

Wyoming Statute §14-3-107[132]

tag: table


document_title: Slavery Abolition Act 1833

question_text: when was the abolition of slavery in britain

text: Slavery Abolition Act 1833

text: Background[edit]

text: In May 1772, Lord Mansfield's judgement in the Somersett's Case emancipated a slave in England, which helped launch the movement to abolish slavery.[1] The case ruled that slavery was unsupported by law in England and no authority could be exercised on slaves entering English or Scottish soil.[2] In 1785, English poet William Cowper wrote:

text:
We have no slaves at home – Then why abroad?
Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free.
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud.
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then,
And let it circulate through every vein.[3]

text: By 1783, an anti-slavery movement to abolish the slave trade throughout the Empire had begun among the British public. In 1793 Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe signed the Act Against Slavery. Passed by the local Legislative Assembly, it was the first legislation to outlaw the slave trade in a part of the British Empire.[4]

text: In 1807, Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which outlawed the slave trade, but not slavery itself. Abolitionist Henry Brougham realized that trading would continue and as an new MP successfully introduced the Slave Trade Felony Act 1811 which at last made slave trading criminal throughout the empire. The Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. It did suppress the slave trade, but did not stop it entirely. Between 1808 and 1860, the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans.[5] They resettled many in Jamaica and the Bahamas.[6][7] Britain also used its influence to coerce other countries to agree treaties to end their slave trade and allow the Royal Navy to seize their slave ships.[8][9]

text: In 1823, the Anti-Slavery Society was founded in London. Members included Joseph Sturge, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, Henry Brougham, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Jane Smeal, Elizabeth Pease, and Anne Knight.[10] William Wilberforce had prior written in his diary in 1787 that his great purpose in life was to suppress the slave trade before waging a 20-year fight on the industry.[11]

text: During the Christmas holiday of 1831, a large-scale slave revolt in Jamaica, known as the Baptist War, broke out. It was organised originally as a peaceful strike by the Baptist minister Samuel Sharpe. The rebellion was suppressed by the militia of the Jamaican plantocracy and the British garrison ten days later in early 1832. Because of the loss of property and life in the 1831 rebellion, the British Parliament held two inquiries. The results of these inquiries contributed greatly to the abolition of slavery with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.[citation needed]

text: The Act[edit]

text: The Act had its third reading in the House of Commons on 26 July 1833, three days before William Wilberforce died.[12] It received the Royal Assent a month later, on 28 August, and came into force the following year, on 1 August 1834. In practical terms, only slaves below the age of six were freed in the colonies. Former slaves over the age of six were redesignated as "apprentices", and their servitude was abolished in two stages: the first set of apprenticeships came to an end on 1 August 1838, while the final apprenticeships were scheduled to cease on 1 August 1840. The Act specifically excluded "the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company, or to the Island of Ceylon, or to the Island of Saint Helena." The exceptions were eliminated in 1843.[13]

text: Compensation for slave owners[edit]

text: The Act provided for compensation for slave-owners. The amount of money to be spent on the compensation claims was set at "the Sum of Twenty Million Pounds Sterling".[14] Under the terms of the Act, the British government raised £20 million (£2.020 billions in 2016 pounds)[15] to pay out in compensation for the loss of the slaves as business assets to the registered owners of the freed slaves. In 1833, £20 million amounted to approximately 5% of the British GDP[16] (5% of the British GDP in 2016 was around £100 billion).[17] The names listed in the returns for slave compensation show that ownership was spread over many hundreds of British families,[18] many of them of high social standing. For example, Henry Phillpotts (then the Bishop of Exeter), with three others (as trustees and executors of the will of John Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley), was paid £12,700 for 665 slaves in the West Indies,[19] whilst Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood received £26,309 for 2,554 slaves on 6 plantations.[20] Sir Edward Waterford-Mandeville and his family received £22,145 for 1,359 slaves on their Jamaican estates (Airy Castle Plantation and Bellevue Plantation)[21]. The majority of men and women who were awarded compensation under the 1833 Abolition Act are listed in a Parliamentary Return, entitled Slavery Abolition Act, which is an account of all moneys awarded by the Commissioners of Slave Compensation in the Parliamentary Papers 1837–8 Vol. 48.[21]

text: In all, the government paid out over 2 separate awards. The £20 million fund was 40% of the government's total annual expenditure. In the Cape Colony, where farmers had loans estimated at a total £400,000 (£40.4 million in 2016 pounds)[15] secured against their slaves, the Dutch-language newspaper De Zuid-Afrikaan first campaigned against abolition and then for a compensation package to enable farmers to pay their debts.[22]

text: Protests against apprenticeships[edit]

text: On 1 August 1834, an unarmed group of mainly elderly people being addressed by the Governor at Government House in Port of Spain, Trinidad, about the new laws, began chanting: "Pas de six ans. Point de six ans" ("Not six years. No six years"), drowning out the voice of the Governor. Peaceful protests continued until a resolution to abolish apprenticeship was passed and de facto freedom was achieved. Full emancipation for all was legally granted ahead of schedule on 1 August 1838.[23]

text: Exceptions and continuations[edit]

text: As a notable exception to the rest of the British Empire, the Act did not "extend to any of the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company, or to the Island of Ceylon, or to the Island of Saint Helena."[13] Slavery was abolished in India by the Indian Slavery Act of 1843.[citation needed]

text: A successor organisation to the Anti-Slavery Society was formed in London in 1839, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which worked to outlaw slavery worldwide.[24] The world's oldest international human rights organisation, it continues today as Anti-Slavery International.[25]

text: It is believed that after 1833 clandestine slave-trading continued within the British Empire; in 1854 Nathaniel Isaacs, owner of the island of Matakong off the coast of Sierra Leone was accused of slave-trading by the governor of Sierra Leone, Sir Arthur Kennedy. Papers relating to the charges were lost when the Forerunner was wrecked off Madeira in October 1854. In the absence of the papers, the English courts refused to proceed with the prosecution.[26]

text: In Australia, blackbirding and the holding of indigenous workers' pay "in trust" continued, in some instances into the 1970s.[27][28]

text: Modern slavery, both in the form of human trafficking and people imprisoned for forced or compulsory labour, continues to this day.[29]

text: Repeal[edit]

text: The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was repealed in its entirety by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1998.[30][31] The repeal has not made slavery legal again, with sections of the Slave Trade Act 1824, Slave Trade Act 1843 and Slave Trade Act 1873 continuing in force. In its place the Human Rights Act 1998 incorporates into British Law Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits the holding of persons as slaves.[32][33][34][35]


document_title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)

question_text: which harry potter movie has the quidditch world cup

text: Plot[edit]

text: Harry Potter awakens from a nightmare wherein Frank Bryce is killed after overhearing Lord Voldemort conspiring with Peter Pettigrew and another man. Harry attends the Quidditch World Cup between Ireland and Bulgaria with the Weasleys. After the game, Death Eaters terrorise the camp, and the man who appeared in Harry's dream summons the Dark Mark.

text: At Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore introduces ex-Auror Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. He also announces that the school will host the legendary event known as the Triwizard Tournament, in which three magical schools compete by facing three dangerous challenges. The Goblet of Fire selects "champions" to take part in the competition: Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff representing Hogwarts, Viktor Krum representing the Durmstrang Institute from Central Europe, and Fleur Delacour representing Beauxbatons Academy of Magic from France. The Goblet unexpectedly chooses a fourth champion: Harry Potter. Dumbledore cannot pull the underage Harry out of the tournament, as Ministry official Barty Crouch Sr. insists that after being selected, the champions are bound by a contract.

text: For the first task, each champion must retrieve a golden egg guarded by a dragon. Harry succeeds in retrieving the egg, which contains information about the second challenge. Shortly after, another event known as the Yule Ball, a formal dance takes place; Harry's crush Cho Chang attends with Cedric, and Hermione Granger attends with Viktor, making Ron jealous. During the second task, the champions must dive underwater to rescue their mates. Harry comes out in third place, but is placed second behind Cedric due to his "moral fibre" after saving Fleur's sister Gabrielle as well as Ron. Afterwards, Harry discovers the corpse of Barty Crouch Sr. in the forest. Later, while waiting for Dumbledore in his office, Harry discovers a Pensieve, which holds Dumbledore's memories. Harry witnesses a trial in which Igor Karkaroff, Durmstrang Institute's Headmaster, confesses to the Ministry of Magic names of other Death Eaters, after Voldemort's defeat. When he names Severus Snape as one, Dumbledore vouches for Snape's innocence; Snape turned spy against Voldemort before the latter's downfall. As Karkaroff names Barty Crouch Jr., a devastated Barty Crouch Sr. imprisons his son in Azkaban. Exiting the Pensieve, Harry realises the man he saw in his dream is Barty Crouch Jr.

text: For the final task, the champions enter a hedge maze, and must reach the Triwizard Cup. Viktor, under the influence of the Imperius Curse, incapacitates Fleur. After Harry saves Cedric when the maze attacks him, the two claim a draw and together grab the cup, which turns out to be a Portkey and transports them to a graveyard where Pettigrew and Voldemort are waiting. Pettigrew kills Cedric with the Killing Curse and performs a ritual that rejuvenates Voldemort, who then summons the Death Eaters. Voldemort releases Harry in order to beat him in a duel to prove he is the better wizard. Unable to defend himself, Harry tries the Expelliarmus charm at the same moment that Voldemort attempts the Killing Curse. The beams from their wands entwine, and Voldemort's wand disgorges the last spells it performed. The spirits of the people he murdered materialise in the graveyard, including Harry's parents and Cedric. Voldemort and his Death Eaters are distracted, allowing Harry to escape with Cedric's body by grabbing the Portkey.

text: Harry tells Dumbledore that Voldemort returned and killed Cedric. Moody takes Harry back to his office to interrogate him about Lord Voldemort, inadvertently blowing his cover when he asks Harry whether there were "others in the graveyard" though Harry never mentioned a graveyard. Moody reveals that he submitted Harry's name to the Goblet of Fire and manipulated Harry throughout the tournament to ensure he would win. Moody attempts to attack Harry, but Dumbledore, Snape, and Minerva McGonagall intervene and subdue him. The teachers force Moody to drink Veritaserum, a truth-telling potion, and he reveals that the real Moody is imprisoned in a magical trunk. The false Moody's Polyjuice Potion wears off, revealing him as Barty Crouch Jr. Crouch Jr. is returned to Azkaban.

text: Dumbledore reveals to the students that Voldemort killed Cedric, although the Ministry of Magic opposes the revelation. Later Dumbledore visits Harry in his dormitory, apologising to him for the dangers he endured. Harry reveals that he saw his parents in the graveyard; Dumbledore names this effect as "Priori Incantatem". Soon after Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons bid farewell to each other.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter
Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley
Emma Watson as Hermione Granger
Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid
Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort
Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore
Brendan Gleeson as Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy
Gary Oldman as Sirius Black
Alan Rickman as Severus Snape
Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall
Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew

tag: ul

text: Miranda Richardson portrays The Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter. Frances de la Tour plays Beauxbatons Academy of Magic's headmistress Olympe Maxime. Robert Pattinson replaces stunt performer/actor Joe Livermore as Hogwarts champion Cedric Diggory, who makes a brief appearance in the previous film in a Quidditch sequence. Clémence Poésy plays the role of Beauxbatons champion Fleur Delacour, while Stanislav Ianevski portrays Durmstrang champion and Quidditch star Viktor Krum. David Tennant portrays Barty Crouch, Jr., who disguises himself as Mad-Eye Moody for most of the film.

text: Production[edit]

text: British film director Mike Newell was chosen to direct the film after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuarón announced that he would only direct one Potter film.[6] In a statement explaining the transition of directors, series producer David Heyman said:

text:
“

When Alfonso made the decision to focus on completing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we were faced with the daunting task of finding a director to handle the complex challenges of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and to follow in the footsteps of Chris Columbus and Alfonso Cuarón. Mike's rich and diverse body of work show him to be the perfect choice. He has worked with children, made us laugh, and had us sitting on the edge of our seats. He is great with actors and imbues all his characters, all his films, with great humanity. I'm thrilled.

”

text: Principal photography for Goblet of Fire began on 4 May 2004.[7] Scenes involving the film's principal actors began filming on 25 June 2004 at England's Leavesden Studios.[8][9]

text: Steve Kloves, the screenwriter for the previous instalments, returned for Goblet of Fire. On adapting the 734-page book into a feature-length film, Kloves commented that "we always thought it would be two movies, but we could never figure out a way to break it in two. So it will be a different experience from the book."[10]

text: Set design[edit]

text:
"Filming in an actual loch would have been too cold and impractical. We looked into doing a process called 'dry for wet,' where you suspend an actor and blow wind on them to give the illusion that they are underwater, but the hair didn't undulate convincingly."
—Heyman, on the underwater scenes[11]

tag: div

text: As in the previous instalments, Stuart Craig and Stephenie McMillan provided the film's art and set designs, respectively. Due to the film's scope, there were many new sets and transformations of old sets created. McMillan was most excited about redesigning the Great Hall for the scenes involving the Yule Ball. "Originally we thought silver curtains, silver table cloths and an ice dance floor," said McMillan, "but it just went on and on. The drapes man eventually said, 'Why not just stick the fabrics on the wall?'"[12] Each task of the Triwizard Tournament required massive sets. The rock quarry set for the first task, where Harry faces off with the Hungarian Horntail, was built in two sections at Leavesden Studios. Craig called it "one of the biggest sets we've ever built for any of the films."[11] For the second task, involving the film's underwater scenes, the film crew designed and built a blue screen tank holding "about half a million gallons of water."[13] As for the final task, which took place in the maze, hedge walls ranging from 20 to 40 feet tall were constructed and enhanced with computer-generated imagery.[14]

text: Music[edit]

text: John Williams, who had scored the first three Harry Potter films, could not return for the fourth instalment due to a busy 2005 schedule.[15] Patrick Doyle, who had worked with Newell in Into the West and Donnie Brasco, replaced him as composer. The initial request was that Doyle would be working with Williams' material, but eventually only "Hedwig's Theme", the leitmotif of the series, remained from the previous scores.[16] Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker, who was even rumoured to score the film,[17] was one of the musicians invited by Doyle, with whom he had worked in the Great Expectations soundtrack, to write a song for a wizard rock band. Once Doyle chose Cocker's composition, he and other British musicians such as Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway of Radiohead were picked to play the fictional band, both performing songs for the soundtrack and having cameo roles in the film.[18][19]

text: Differences from the book[edit]

text: With the Goblet of Fire novel almost twice the length of Prisoner of Azkaban, the writers and producers reduced certain scenes and concepts to make the transition from page to screen. Director Mike Newell described the problem as one of "compressing a huge book into the compass of a movie".[21] This was achieved by "putting aside" all the components of the novel which did not directly relate to Harry and his journey.[21]

text: Goblet of Fire is the first film adaptation not to begin at Privet Drive; after the opening sequence, Harry awakens at the Burrow on the morning of the Quidditch World Cup.[22]

text: The game play at the Quidditch World Cup was removed for timing reasons, leaving an abrupt temporal jump which some reviewers considered awkward or "rushed". In the book, Harry and many of the Weasleys supported Ireland, while in the film Harry and Ron supported Bulgaria. However, they also love Viktor Krum, from Bulgaria.[23]

text: Other scenes are shortened and amalgamated to include only the most essential plot details: the three Death Eater trials Harry witnesses in the Pensieve are merged into one sequence; the characters of Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Ludo Bagman, Winky, Narcissa Malfoy and Bertha Jorkins are absent, as well as Dobby, who was supposed to help Harry obtain Gillyweed for the second task. Instead, that scene was changed to involve Neville Longbottom. There is no train scene at the end where Rita Skeeter is revealed to be an illegal, unregistered animagus; Harry is never seen either receiving or giving away the 1,000 galleons in prize winnings. All of Sirius Black's lines are condensed into a single fireside conversation. The scene in which Crouch Jr. is taken back to Azkaban is different from the book, in which he was "killed" by a Dementor summoned by Cornelius Fudge. There is also no conversation in which Fudge refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned, so this is explained in the next film.[22]

text: Distribution[edit]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: An exclusive first-look of the film was shown on ABC during the television premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on 7 May 2005.[24] The first trailer was made available online on 8 May 2005.[25] The international trailer debuted online on 23 August 2005.[26]

text: The video game version, designed by EA UK, was released 8 November 2005.[27] Mattel released a line of action figures and artefacts based on the film.[28] Among these was the first edition of Harry Potter Scene It? containing over 1,000 questions involving the four films.[29]

text: Rating[edit]

text: Goblet of Fire was the first film in the series to receive a PG-13 rating by the MPAA for "sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images", M by the ACB[30] and a 12A by the BBFC for its dark themes, fantasy violence, threat and frightening images.

text: Wyrd Sisters lawsuit[edit]

text: In the run up to the film, Warner Bros. approached a Canadian folk group called the Wyrd Sisters to obtain permission to use the name THE WEIRD SISTERS for its Harry Potter Band. When a deal could not be made, the Canadian band filed a US$40-million lawsuit against Warner Bros., the North American distributor of the film, as well as the members of the in-movie band (members of the bands Radiohead and Pulp, among others)[31] for the misuse of their group's name. (In a deleted scene, they are simply introduced as "the band that needs no introduction".) The Canadian band also brought an injunction to stop the release of the film in its country as it contained a performance by the identically named fictional rock band. An Ontario judge dismissed this motion, and to avoid further controversy Warner Bros. rendered the band unnamed in the film and many derived products. However, the Winnipeg-based group continued to pursue the lawsuit; lead singer Kim Baryluk stated in her claim that "consumers will assume that the smaller and less famous Canadian band is trying to take advantage of the Harry Potter fame by copying the Harry Potter band's name when in fact the reverse is true."[32] The injunction was dismissed, and the band was ordered to pay costs.[33][34] As of March 2010, the lawsuit has been settled, the details sealed.[35]

text: Theatrical release[edit]

text: Goblet of Fire was the second film in the series to be given a simultaneous release in conventional theatres and IMAX.[36] Dubbed as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The IMAX Experience, the film was digitally remastered for IMAX from its 35mm form to take part in a "commercial growth strategy" set up between IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures.[37][38]

text: The film was released in most countries within a two-week period starting on 18 November 2005 in the United Kingdom and United States, with a 1 December 2005 release in Australia. In the United States, the film opened in a maximum of 3,858 cinemas that included several IMAX screens.[4]

text: The world premiere of the film took place in London, England on 6 November 2005.[39] One of the features of the premiere was an animatronic, fire-breathing Hungarian Horntail.[40] The 40-foot-long dragon, used during the scene where Hagrid leads Harry into the forest a night before the first task, was designed and built by the film's special effects supervisor John Richardson and creature effects & makeup supervisor Nick Dudman.[11]

text: Home media[edit]

text: The film was released on DVD in North America on 7 March 2006. It was available in one- and two-disc editions, as well as part of an 8-disc box set that includes all four films made by that time.[41] The bonus disc features three interactive games, as well as seven behind the scenes featurettes. The film was also released in UMD format for PSP.

text: On its first day of release in North America, over 5 million copies were sold, recording a franchise high for first-day sales. Within its first week it sold over a total of 9 million units of combined sales of both the widescreen and full-screen versions of the DVD.[42]

text: The UK edition was released on DVD on 20 March 2006 and became the fastest selling UK DVD ever, selling six copies per second on its first day of release. According to the Official Charts Company, the DVD sold 1.4 million copies in its first week alone. It is also available in a two-disc edition with special features similar to the North American two-disc edition.[43]

text: Currently, the DVD holds the Guinness World Record for being the fastest selling DVD of all time. The achievement was added to the 2007 book edition of The Guinness World Records, which includes a picture of the award being presented to Dan Radcliffe on set of Order of the Phoenix at Leavesden Film Studios in April 2006.[44]

text: In the United States, the first five Harry Potter films were released on HD DVD and Blu-ray disc on 11 December 2007. The fourth film has since become available in numerous box sets containing the other films released in the series, including the Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection and Harry Potter Wizard's Collection. An Ultimate Edition of Goblet of Fire was released on 19 October 2010, featuring behind-the-scenes footage, trailers, additional scenes, and a feature-length special Creating the World of Harry Potter Part 4: Sound & Music.[45] Despite not being included in the Ultimate Edition, an extended version has been shown during certain television airings with a running time of about 167 minutes.[46]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: After an opening day of $40 million at the North American box office and staying at number 1 for three weeks, The Goblet of Fire made a successful 20-week run in cinemas, closing on 6 April 2006. The film set numerous records, including the highest non-May opening weekend in the US, and earned £14.9m in its opening weekend in the UK, a record which has since been beaten by the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, which took in £15.4m. The Goblet of Fire drew $102.7 million its opening weekend at the North American box office, setting a new opening high for the franchise and also achieved the highest weekend debut in November, with the latter being surpassed by The Twilight Saga: New Moon in 2009.[47] It sold about as many tickets as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone did in its opening weekend. The film's franchise record was later overtaken in 2010 by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, which opened to $125 million; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 followed with $169.1 million in its opening weekend. The Goblet of Fire's debut marked the fourth $100 million weekend in history and as of July 2011, it stands as the 17th largest opening weekend ever. In Mainland China, the film generated 93 million yuan.

text: The Goblet of Fire earned almost US$897 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing international and worldwide release of 2005.

text: In IMAX theatres only, the film grossed a total of US$20,033,758 worldwide for a cumulative per screen average of $188,998 thus setting a new record and a new milestone for a digitally remastered 2-D IMAX release.

text: In January 2006, The Goblet of Fire surpassed the box office takings of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) to become the eighth-highest-grossing film worldwide, and the second-highest-grossing film in the  Harry Potter series, behind The Philosopher's Stone. As of July 2011, it has been the sixth-highest-grossing Harry Potter film behind The Philosopher's Stone, The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince, The Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and The Deathly Hallows – Part 2.[48]

text: The film ranks third in the North American box office behind Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and  The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for 2005, with US$290 million, although both films rank lower than Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in worldwide terms.[4]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 246 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The main characters are maturing, and the filmmakers are likewise improving on their craft; vibrant special effects and assured performances add up to what is the most complex yet of the Harry Potter films."[49] At Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[50] On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[51]

text: The New York Daily News praised the film for both its humour and its dark tone.[52] The young actors were praised for demonstrating a "greater range of subtle emotions",[53] particularly Daniel Radcliffe whom Variety described as delivering a "dimensional and nuanced performance".[54] New cast members were also praised: Brendan Gleeson's portrayal of Mad-Eye Moody was described as "colourful";[54] Miranda Richardson's scenes as Rita Skeeter were described as "wonderful";[52] and Ralph Fiennes's portrayal of Lord Voldemort was described as "sublime villainy".[55]

text: The maturity of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, among others, impressed most critics. While the major characters were portrayed as children in the previous films, "they have subtly transitioned into teenagers (in Goblet of Fire)" according to one USA Today reviewer. Desson Thomson of the Washington Post called the film "Probably the most engaging film of the Potter series thus far".[56] Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal stated "The studio, like plucky Harry, passes with flying colors. The new one, directed by Mike Newell from another astute script by Mr. Kloves, is even richer and fuller, as well as dramatically darker. It's downright scary how good this movie is".[57]

text: Negative criticism included the film's pace which The Arizona Republic described as being "far too episodic",[58] while CNN.com described the film as "clunky and disjointed".[59] Another criticism was that the many supporting characters did not get enough screen time.[54][59] The film was listed at #36 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies praising Rowling for ingeniously blending "two literary traditions, fantasy and coming-through-school fiction".[60]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction at the 78th Academy Awards.[61] At the 2006 Teen Choice Awards, the film won the award for Choice Movie Drama.[62] The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design, making it the first Harry Potter film to win at the BAFTAs.[63]

text: At the 2006 Kids' Choice Awards, the film won the Blimp Award for Favorite Movie, becoming the only Harry Potter film to do so.[64]