DWARF PLANET Definition & Meaning

dwarf planet

[ dwawrf plan-it ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Astronomy.

a spherical celestial body revolving about the sun, similar to a planet but not large enough to gravitationally clear its orbital region of most or all other celestial bodies. In 2006, the planet Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet.

dwarf planet

noun

any celestial body within the solar system that is larger than a satellite but smaller than a planet, and that orbits the sun

dwarf planet

A celestial body that orbits the Sun and is massive enough to assume a nearly spherical shape, but that does not clear other bodies from the neighborhood around its orbit and is not a satellite of a planet. Dwarf planets include Ceres, Pluto, and Eris. This category was created by the International Astronomical Union in 2006.

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of dwarf planet¹

First recorded in 1990–95

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Pluto, considered the ninth planet in our solar system until it was reclassified to dwarf planet status in 2006, is thought to have undergone an impact that broke off the largest of its five moons, Charon.

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That is why astrobiologists are increasingly turning their eyes toward icy bodies like the Jovian moons of Europa and Ganymede, Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus, Uranus' moon Miranda and the dwarf planet Ceres.

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Abrams picked up the torch for the seventh, eighth and ninth movies, he tasked their rebels with blowing up one the size of a dwarf planet.

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After our moon and Pluto, the University of Bern team plans to explore similar scenarios for other outer Solar System bodies such as the Pluto-like dwarf planet Haumea.

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Ever since the cameras of NASA's New Horizons mission discovered a large heart-shaped structure on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto in 2015, this "heart" has puzzled scientists because of its unique shape, geological composition, and elevation.

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