inner planet

[ in-er plan-it ]

/ ˈɪn ər ˈplæn ɪt /

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See synonyms for inner planet on Thesaurus.com

noun Astronomy.

any of the planets in our solar system whose orbits lie between the sun and the asteroid belt, namely, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, all of which are terrestrial planets.

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THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

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Compare outer planet.

Origin of inner planet

First recorded in 1950–55

Words nearby inner planet

Inner Light, inner man, inner mission, Inner Mongolia, innermost, inner planet, inner product, inner sanctum, innersole, inner space, innerspring

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use inner planet in a sentence

With that likelihood in mind, the group concludes that this plentiful type of inner planet could host alien microbes, and that any lifeforms on these worlds would alter their atmospheres in ways that astronomers will soon be able to detect with ease.
‘Hycean’ exoplanets could be home to the alien life we’ve been searching for|Charlie Wood|August 26, 2021|Popular-Science
Rather, the garden-variety inner planet seems to fall somewhere between a rocky dwarf and a gassy giant.
‘Hycean’ exoplanets could be home to the alien life we’ve been searching for|Charlie Wood|August 26, 2021|Popular-Science
The solar system’s inner planets, including Earth, could instead have formed through big collisions, he suspects.
The pebbled path to planets|Stephen Ornes|May 27, 2021|Science News For Students
Researchers are still working out the details of why this happens, but the general theory is that inner planets tend to run hotter, which boils away their gassy atmospheres, leaving mainly rocky cores behind.
These 6 exoplanets somehow orbit their star in perfect rhythm|Charlie Wood|January 27, 2021|Popular-Science

The flow of gas changes and creates a pileup interior to the inner planet’s orbit, which acts to push both planets outward.
The Sight of Jupiter and Saturn Together Is a Beautiful Thing - Facts So Romantic|Sean Raymond & Sebastiaan Krijt|December 21, 2020|Nautilus
Meadows began to play inner planet combinations that occasionally paid, though at short odds.
Fee of the Frontier|Horace Brown Fyfe
"The most probable one is the next inner planet, Aphrodite," replied Morey.
Islands of Space|John W Campbell
The inner planet revolved about it with one side glowing low red heat and the other side piled high with frozen atmosphere.
Talents, Incorporated|William Fitzgerald Jenkins

British Dictionary definitions for inner planet

inner planet

noun

any of the planets Mercury, Venus, earth, and Mars, whose orbits lie inside the asteroid belt

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for inner planet

inner planet

Any of the four planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, whose orbits lie nearest the Sun. The inner planets are of similar size and have high densities compared to the larger gas giants among the outer planets. They are composed mostly of rock and metal and are relatively slow to rotate, with solid surfaces, no rings, and few moons. Also called terrestrial planet Compare outer planet. See also inferior planet.

inner planet

Origin of inner planet

Words nearby inner planet

Words related to inner planet

How to use inner planet in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for inner planet

Scientific definitions for inner planet