Perigee

Quick meaning: Perigee is a noun meaning (astronomy) The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is closest to the Earth: the periapsis of an Earth orbiter.

Meaning

(astronomy) The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is closest to the Earth: the periapsis of an Earth orbiter.

More Meanings

1. (astronomy, more generally) The point, in an orbit about any planet, that is closest to the planet: the periapsis of any satellite.
2. (possibly archaic outside astrology) The point, in any trajectory of an object in space, where it is closest to the Earth.

Example Sentences

[Nereid’s] apogee—farthest point from Neptune—is five times the distance of its perigee—its closest point.

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.

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).

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.

Word Forms

• perigees

Antonyms for perigee

Common opposites include apogee.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include syzygy, mile, bottom, pericenter, perigalacticum, apogee.

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