outer planet

noun

: 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
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Crystalline water ice, Xie explained, is known to be found in various places within our solar systems—from some of the moons of the outer planets to Saturn's rings, comets and other rocks that make up the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the solar system. Ian Randall, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 May 2025 In our own neighborhood, Hubble has studied the changing weather on the outer planets, discovered moons orbiting Pluto and watched the once-in-a-lifetime impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter scar the giant planet with dark spots as big as Earth. Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 24 Apr. 2025 The company hopes to partner with other missions to rapidly deliver cargo to Mars, supplies to lunar orbit, mining equipment to near-Earth asteroids, probes to outer planets and telescopes to deep space. Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Apr. 2025 These two outer planets, which lie farther from the sun than Earth so can't undertake us like Venus and Mercury, are called superior planets by astronomers. Jamie Carter, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for outer planet

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of outer planet was in 1850

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Cite this Entry

“Outer planet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/outer%20planet. Accessed 22 May. 2025.

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