solar system
nounDefinition of solar system
: the sun together with the group of celestial bodies that are held by its attraction and revolve around it
also
: a similar system centered on another star
Examples of solar system in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Its characters are the planets in our solar system. — Catalina Righter, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, "Student-written play will premiere as Carroll Community College fall touring show," 4 Sep. 2019 The Outer Space Treaty covers things like how to hold nations responsible for their space actions and rules to avoid polluting our solar system. — Deanna Paul, Anchorage Daily News, "Space: The final legal frontier," 1 Sep. 2019 Objects exposed to the dust permeating our solar system for long periods of time grow dustier and darker. — Vahe Peroomian, The Conversation, "A brief astronomical history of Saturn’s amazing rings," 14 Aug. 2019 The fireballs are released from the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle during its numerous returns to the inner solar system. — Christopher Brito, CBS News, "When and where to watch the Perseid meteor shower peak tonight," 12 Aug. 2019 There’s another category of objects to worry about, though: long-periodic comets that swing through our solar system so infrequently that astronomers haven’t mapped them yet. — Kelsey Piper, Vox, "A “city-killing” asteroid just zipped by Earth. Why didn’t we see it coming?," 26 July 2019 Several dozen missions use the Deep Space Network as part of the continuing exploration of our solar system and beyond. — Jean Creighton, Quartz, "These innovations from the Moon landing changed life on Earth," 19 July 2019 Scientists suspect that part of the moon's inner crust may be exposed there, and that samples from this region might reveal clues about the formation of both the moon and the inner solar system, including Earth. — Jason Davis, NBC News, "NASA's Artemis program will return astronauts to the moon and give us the first female moonwalker," 11 June 2019 In the early solar system, many asteroids like Ultima Thule combined in the inner solar system to form the Earth and other rocky planets, so exploring Ultima Thule can give us a better understanding of what that environment looked like. — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, "Here's Our Best Look So Far at Ultima Thule," 2 Jan. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'solar system.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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