Exoplanet

Origin

Constructed from Ancient Greek: - + planet.

Full definition of exoplanet

Noun

1. (astronomy, planetology) A planet which exists outside Earth's solar system.
• 2007, Alexander Hellemans, "Dangling a COROT", Scientific American, vol. 297, no. 3, p. 32:More such announcements will likely come in the months to follow, as the first space observatory dedicated to hunting exoplanets, called COROT, begins full operation and researchers complete their calculations.
• 2013, Kevin Heng, Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?, In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter. Their densities range from that of styrofoam to iron.

Synonyms

• exosolar planet
• extrasolar planet

Related terms

• exocomet
• exomoon