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inner planet
noun
: any of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars whose orbits are within the asteroid belt
Examples of inner planet in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
As a red giant, the sun will likely evaporate the solar system’s inner planets such as Mercury and Venus, although Earth’s fate remains unclear, according to NASA.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 26 Feb. 2024
Kane’s analysis, published last month, shows that the growing star will engulf the three inner planets.
—Quanta Magazine, 20 Dec. 2023
And the question is: How, among these inner planets, was Earth the only one who could begin life and sustain life?
—Chris Klimek, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Nov. 2023
All of the planets are larger than Earth, with the two inner planets just slightly larger and the other five planets even bigger, about twice the size of Earth.
—Kerry Breen, CBS News, 3 Nov. 2023
The comet takes 133 years to make one complete passage from deep space, toward the inner planets, around the sun, and out and back again.
—Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 11 Aug. 2023
In the Distant Future One day, billions of years from now, earth will fall into the sun, along with inner planets Mercury, Venus and Mars, possibly causing the star to swell further.
—Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 11 May 2023
Although past observations have confirmed the result of planetary engulfment when sun-like stars expand – up to 1,000 times the original size – and engulf the system's inner planets, astronomers had not seen it until now.
—Julia Musto, Fox News, 4 May 2023
But our inner planets seem to have formed with little of the element or lost it early in their history.
—John Timmer, Ars Technica, 12 Apr. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inner planet.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1951, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near inner planet
Cite this Entry
“Inner planet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inner%20planet. Accessed 10 Jun. 2024.
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