perigee
See also: périgée
English edit
Etymology edit
From French périgée via Latin perigeum, perigaeum, ultimately from Ancient Greek περί (perí, “near”) + γῆ (gê, “Earth”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
perigee (plural perigees)
- (astronomy) The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is closest to the Earth: the periapsis of an Earth orbiter.
- 2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face, International New York Times, 10 September 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times[1]:
- As the moon wheels around Earth every 28 days and shows us a progressively greater and then stingier slice of its sun-lightened face, the distance between the moon and Earth changes, too. At the nearest point along its egg-shaped orbit, its perigee, the moon may be 26,000 miles closer to us than it is at its far point.
- (astronomy, more generally) The point, in an orbit about any planet, that is closest to the planet: the periapsis of any satellite.
- 2002, Serge Brunier, Solar System Voyage, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 36:
- The resolution of the images obtained by this American probe [Messenger] will depend on its altitude [above Mercury] at any one time: about ten meters at perigee (200km altitude), but only one 1 km at apogee (15000km).
- (possibly archaic outside astrology) The point, in any trajectory of an object in space, where it is closest to the Earth.
Antonyms edit
Hyponyms edit
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
- see periapsis
Translations edit
closest point in an orbit about the Earth
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