perigee
See also: périgée
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French périgée via (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin perigeum, perigaeum, ultimately from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek περί (perí, “near”) + γῆ (gê, “Earth”).
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈpɛɹɪdʒiː/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈpɛɹədʒi/
Noun
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.
- 1995, John H. Rogers, The Giant Planet Jupiter, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 335:
- Conjunctions of I and II [Io and Europa] occur when they are near perigee and apogee respectively; conjunctions of II and III [Europa and Ganymede] occur when II [Europa] is near perigee.
- 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).
- 2010, Ruth Walker and Mary M. Shaffrey et al., Exploring Space: The High Frontier, Jones & Bartlett Learning, →ISBN, page 129:
- [Nereid’s] apogee—farthest point from Neptune—is five times the distance of its perigee—its closest point.
- 1995, John H. Rogers, The Giant Planet Jupiter, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 335:
- (possibly archaic outside astrology) The point, in any trajectory of an object in space, where it is closest to the Earth.
Antonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
- see periapsis
Translations
closest point in an orbit about the Earth
|
closest point in an orbit about a planet
|
closest point to the Earth
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
See also
Categories:
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Astronomy
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with archaic senses
- en:Astrology