dwarf planet

noun

: a celestial body that orbits the sun and has a spherical shape but is not large enough to disturb other objects from its orbit

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

But the photos that came back from the dwarf planet revealed a world of mountains, ridges, and... strange lumpy things that don't have an obvious Earthly analog. —John Timmer, Ars Technica, 17 Dec. 2021

But, alas, our journey to this furthest dwarf planet is about to come to an end. —Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 6 July 2015

The dwarf planet Ceres is currently the largest object in the asteroid belt and has a radius that is only some 27 percent the radius of our Moon, Kane notes. —Bruce Dorminey, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2023

Vesta is the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, second only to the dwarf planet Ceres. —Korey Haynes, Discover Magazine, 18 Mar. 2019

Since then, meteorites from the dwarf planet have fallen to Earth and collected over recent centuries. —Mike Snider, USA TODAY, 14 Sep. 2022

But astronomers keep finding new dwarf planet candidates every year. —Eric Betz, Discover Magazine, 2 Feb. 2020

Ceres is an icy dwarf planet with daytime temperatures sitting at about negative 100 degrees Fahrenheit. —Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 27 May 2022

Much more of our solar system will come under the observatory’s roaming eye, including Saturn, Uranus and even remote icy objects beyond Neptune — such as the dwarf planet Pluto. —Jonathan O’callaghan, New York Times, 21 Sep. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1993, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

dwarf planet

noun

: a celestial object similar to a planet but too small to clear other objects from its orbit