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Definition of outer planet
: any of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune whose orbits lie beyond the asteroid belt
Examples of outer planet in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web In the 1970s, as the Voyager mission cruised toward the outer planets, scientists predicted that the spacecraft would find moons like our own.
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Marina Koren, The Atlantic, "A Solar System of Fire and Ice," 12 Mar. 2020 This was incidental; the Voyager probes were built to study the outer planets but were given gravitational boosts that ultimately sent them speeding off fast enough to cover three times the distance from the Earth to the Sun every year.
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John Timmer, Ars Technica, "A bonanza of data from the second Voyager to reach the Solar System’s edge," 4 Nov. 2019 Hubble participates in the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program, and these images of the outer planets help scientists study the giant planets and their atmospheres.
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Ashley Strickland, CNN, "Hubble snaps new portrait of Saturn," 12 Sep. 2019 Consider Voyager 1 and 2, the space probes launched in 1977 that explored the outer planets of the solar system and then headed out toward interstellar space.
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Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, "It’s not science fiction — scientists planning mission to nearest star using tiny spacecraft," 14 Mar. 2020 Two outer planets go retrograde in your house of home and family at the end of April.
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Randon Rosenbohm, Allure, "What April’s Libra Horoscope Means for You," 31 Mar. 2019 This week in the night sky Get the year’s best view of the distant ice giant Uranus on Sunday night, as the outer planet lies opposite the sun in our sky.
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National Geographic, "How to mix style and sustainability," 23 Oct. 2019 Hubble participates in the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program, and these images of the outer planets help scientists study the giant planets and their atmospheres.
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Ashley Strickland, CNN, "Hubble snaps new portrait of Saturn," 12 Sep. 2019 Hubble participates in the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program, and these images of the outer planets help scientists study the giant planets and their atmospheres.
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Ashley Strickland, CNN, "Hubble snaps new portrait of Saturn," 12 Sep. 2019
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'outer planet.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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The first known use of outer planet was in 1850
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