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Periapsis

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The point of a body's (elliptical) orbit in a 2-body gravitational system such that the distance between the two bodies (measured from their respective centres of mass) is at its minimum.

    "1983, Richard O. Fimmel, Laurence Colin, Eric Burgess, Pioneer Venus, NASA SP-461, page 109, Figure 5-19. Sun-Venus-Orbiter geometry illustrates how the periapsis moves around the planet during the Venusian sidereal year to sample day and night hemispheres. Because the planet rotates in a retrograde direction, it takes more than one Venusian sidereal year for periapsis to move over all longitudes of the planet (as explained in text)."

  2. 2
    (astronomy) the point in an orbit closest to the body being orbited wordnet
  3. 3
    The minimum distance between the two bodies in such a system.

Etymology

From peri- + apsis.

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