dwarf planet

[dwawrf plan-it]

noun

Astronomy.

1. 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

1. 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

1. 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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dwarf planet¹

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

Since then, Pluto, our beloved ninth planet, has been demoted to a dwarf planet.

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Pluto is now the most famous dwarf planet, though!

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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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