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What is "orbit"

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orbit
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
orbit
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
geostationary orbit
orbit
▪ The Earth orbits the Sun once a year, and the Moon orbits the Earth approximately every 27 days.
the Earth’s orbit
▪ The rocket left the Earth's orbit and set off to Mars.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
around
▪ According to the theory, negatively charged electrons within atoms orbit around positively charged nuclei.
▪ Astronomers have observed many systems in which two stars orbit around each other, attracted toward each other by gravity.
▪ They also observe systems in which there is only one visible star that is orbiting around some unseen companion.
▪ As the Moon orbits around the Earth it exerts its gravitational pull as illustrated: 1.
■ NOUN
earth
▪ Although the exchanged particles are virtual, they certainly do produce a measurable effect-they make the earth orbit the sun!
▪ Copernicus did not even try to convince people that the Earth really orbited the Sun.
electron
▪ According to the theory, negatively charged electrons within atoms orbit around positively charged nuclei.
▪ Top: Model of a two dimensional electron wave orbiting a nucleus of hydrogen.
moon
▪ As the Moon orbits around the Earth it exerts its gravitational pull as illustrated: 1.
planet
▪ Preliminary evidence suggested that a second planet was also orbiting the star further out.
▪ They regard such wobbles as responses to the gravitational tugs of planets orbiting around them.
▪ On some planets orbiting these stellar furnaces skies beget clouds, oceans fill with water and, sometimes, life begins.
▪ Certainly, evidence of intelligent civilizations on planets orbiting distant stars would be an epochal event in human history.
▪ Johannes Kepler was the first person to realize that the planets orbit the Sun in just such paths.
▪ The planet Mercury orbits the Sun more closely than do any of the others.
▪ Electrons you could see as tiny planets orbiting round an even tinier sun.
s
▪ Surprisingly, it follows a Lagrange point on Mars' s orbit.
satellite
▪ You share it with dolphins and whales and albatrosses and the lonely satellite orbiting overhead.
▪ Within a very few years, there should be commercial satellites in orbit capable of image resolutions down to less than 4m.
sun
▪ Although the exchanged particles are virtual, they certainly do produce a measurable effect-they make the earth orbit the sun!
▪ Billions of asteroids orbit the sun in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
▪ Johannes Kepler was the first person to realize that the planets orbit the Sun in just such paths.
▪ The planet Mercury orbits the Sun more closely than do any of the others.
▪ Copernicus did not even try to convince people that the Earth really orbited the Sun.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The satellite will orbit the Earth for the next 15 years.
▪ The team confirmed the discovery of a planet orbiting the star 51 Pegasi.
▪ Venus orbits the sun once every 225 Earth days.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Another insight has arisen out of studies of the logistics of deep-space missions that must return to orbit about Earth.
▪ It orbits closer to the fires of the Sun than any other planet, well inside the orbit of Venus.
▪ Now, thought Floyd, we are on our own, more than half-way to orbit.
▪ On some planets orbiting these stellar furnaces skies beget clouds, oceans fill with water and, sometimes, life begins.
▪ Some years later Newton, using his newly discovered law of gravity, proved that all objects must orbit in elliptical paths.
▪ The Cassini mission currently under preparation is intended to orbit Saturn.
▪ The moons of Jupiter can be seen to orbit Jupiter and not the earth.
▪ Women orbited about surfers on the beach; they clung to them in cars; they occupied their houses in loose liaisons.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
circular
▪ Similarly, radial burns can be used to convert circular orbits into elliptical ones.
▪ Both satellites pursue nearly circular, equatorial orbits about Mars.
▪ Subsequent timing observations have shown the pulsar to be in a 5.74-day circular orbit with a low-mass companion.
▪ A spacecraft passing through its perigee point is moving faster than an equivalent craft on a circular orbit of the same radius.
▪ Consequently the force of gravity at perigee is not enough to hold it in a circular orbit.
▪ This changes them from a circular orbit to an elliptical one.
▪ Another burn at this point can accelerate the craft, placing it on the higher circular orbit.
▪ An arrangement of more than four similar events into a circular orbit emphasises the centre, which may be occupied or not.
eccentric
▪ In summary the binary consists of two compact stars of not dissimilar mass moving in tight eccentric orbits.
▪ These asteroids may then be disturbed by gravitational perturbations by Jupiter into eccentric orbits, and then evolve into Earth-crossing orbits.
▪ The greater the distance between the foci the more eccentric the orbit and the greater the difference between apogee and perigee.
▪ The spacecraft enters into a more eccentric orbit, however the height and position of perigee remains the same.
elliptical
▪ Radial burns can also be used to circularize an elliptical orbit.
▪ In this cumbersome manner the elliptical orbits of the planets could all be defined within the context of the perfect circle.
▪ Kepler published his discovery of the elliptical orbits of planets in 1609.
▪ For example, consider a spacecraft flying in an elliptical orbit and burning its engines at the moment it reaches perigee.
geostationary
▪ This is known as a geostationary orbit and it is the orbit of choice for communications satellites.
▪ These satellites are in geostationary orbit and the images that they provide are used primarily in weather forecasting applications.
▪ As I mentioned earlier, a geostationary orbit is very handy for communications satellites.
high
▪ Figure 4.15 A Hohmann transfer between a low orbit and a higher orbit.
▪ Sometimes manmade objects in high orbits about Earth are also seen and identified from their distinctive motion.
▪ Another burn at this point can accelerate the craft, placing it on the higher circular orbit.
▪ The shuttle also will nudge the observatory into a slightly higher orbit to extend its lifetime.
▪ After all, the high orbit will require a lower speed for stability than the low orbit!
▪ One month later a second satellite was launched into a somewhat higher orbit, of between 234 and 244 miles.
▪ A suitable satellite in high orbit should do it nicely.
▪ For Deimos, in its higher orbit, only 560 meters per second suffices to escape from the Mars system.
low
▪ The unit includes the proposed Iridium global communications system that will use 66 low earth orbit satellites.
▪ But Ranger 1 got stuck in low orbit around Earth, as did Ranger 2 three months later.
▪ Figure 4.15 A Hohmann transfer between a low orbit and a higher orbit.
▪ Satellites in low-earth orbit glimpse only fragments of the planet.
▪ The station was orbiting at 280 kilometres altitude, its lowest orbit since the year of its launch in 1986.
▪ First, the crew, lunar-base modules, and equipment must be launched into a low orbit about Earth.
▪ After all, the high orbit will require a lower speed for stability than the low orbit!
▪ The cost of launching that ounce of gold into low-Earth orbit by shuttle would be about $ 830.
periodic
▪ For r slightly greater than 21. 0, a periodic orbit was not detected in the numerical results.
planetary
▪ Just because the law makes definite claims about planetary orbits, it has informative content and is falsifiable.
▪ An Apollo may make as many as ten crossings of planetary orbits on each trip around the Sun.
▪ These shapes turned out, quite remarkably, to be just what were needed for the descriptions of planetary orbits!
▪ He eventually discovered, however, that the planetary orbits are, in fact, elliptical.
stable
▪ Figure 4.6 How the linear speed needed for a stable orbit decreases with distance from the centre of the Earth.
▪ The bombardment occurs because of the stable orbits of the planets.
■ NOUN
earth
▪ We do it now on a small scale to bring the rocks into Earth orbit from the asteroid belt.
▪ Satellites in low-#earth orbit glimpse only fragments of the planet.
▪ The unit includes the proposed Iridium global communications system that will use 66 low earth orbit satellites.
▪ Another day and a half of zero gravity after takeoff and your ship brakes to enter Earth orbit.
▪ There is a long history of stations in Earth orbit that have met with varying degrees of success.
▪ After one to two years in Earth orbit, it will sail off into space.
▪ However the shuttle is purpose-built to lift payloads into Earth orbit in a reusable manner.
▪ The third stage's initial burn to place Apollo in Earth orbit lasted for 165 seconds.
■ VERB
cross
▪ In 1873, however, one was found on a trajectory that brought it in to cross the orbit of Mars.
▪ Therefore, Eros in its present orbit can cross the orbit of Mars and pass distressingly close to Earth.
▪ This was not a new idea, because comets had been known to have planet-#crossing orbits for some time.
▪ All of the Amor asteroids cross the orbit of Mars and could collide with it.
▪ Almost 1,000 small asteroids crossing our orbit are now known, 300 of them found last year alone.
▪ It has also found two Centaur family asteroids in orbits that cross the orbits of several of the Jovian planets.
▪ These bodies pass through the heavily trafficked inner solar system; many cross the orbits of three or four different planets.
enter
▪ Not easy though, he wrote, to submit oneself to it, to enter its orbit.
▪ They then enter independent orbits around the Sun, eventually to become meteorites.
▪ Another day and a half of zero gravity after takeoff and your ship brakes to enter Earth orbit.
▪ Both entered orbit but quickly malfunctioned.
▪ Discovery would enter a parking orbit around Saturn, be-coming a new moon of the giant planet.
follow
▪ Hence, as we follow the orbit around, we oscillate between one point and the other.
▪ The comet Tempel-Tuttle follows an orbit that is strikingly similar to that of the Leonids.
launch
▪ First, the crew, lunar-base modules, and equipment must be launched into a low orbit about Earth.
move
▪ In summary the binary consists of two compact stars of not dissimilar mass moving in tight eccentric orbits.
▪ I fantasized that by moving out of the orbit of Toots Tutivena and her Entourage, I would no longer be persecuted.
place
▪ On 4 October 1957 the Soviets placed Sputnik in orbit.
▪ Further, no instruments capable of detecting ice deposits were placed in polar orbit about the Moon during the Apollo era.
▪ The third stage's initial burn to place Apollo in Earth orbit lasted for 165 seconds.
▪ In February of 1961 two more spacecraft of this type were placed in closely similar orbits.
▪ The third stage was lit again to place Apollo on to an orbit that would carry it out to the Moon.
put
▪ Supplies could be put in orbit and brought down as needed by a braking system.
▪ Nor did one put shrapnel into orbit around the base.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Diplomats want to draw the two republics into the West European orbit.
▪ the Moon's orbit around the Earth
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A spacecraft passing through its perigee point is moving faster than an equivalent craft on a circular orbit of the same radius.
▪ By the time that the third stages engine had shut down the Apollo astronauts were in orbit.
▪ From the observed orbit of the visible star, one can determine the lowest possible mass of the unseen object.
▪ Mariner 9, with its vastly superior vantage point in orbit around Mars, saw it all.
▪ Once in orbit, you are precisely half way to having enough energy to escape from Earth.
▪ That proposal should send federal unions into orbit.
▪ The orbit of the Leonid shower has been determined from both photographic and radar observations.
▪ This final property is useful because it simplifies the calculation of general relativistic orbits.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Orbit

Orbit \Or"bit\, n. [L. orbita a track or rut made by a wheel, course, circuit, fr. orbis a circle: cf. F. orbite. See 2d Orb.]

  1. (Astron.) The path described by a heavenly body in its periodical revolution around another body; as, the orbit of Jupiter, of the earth, of the moon.

  2. An orb or ball. [Rare & Improper]

    Roll the lucid orbit of an eye.
    --Young.

  3. (Anat.) The cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated.

  4. (Zo["o]l.) The skin which surrounds the eye of a bird.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
orbit

late 14c., "the eye socket," from Old French orbite or directly from Medieval Latin orbita, transferred use of Latin orbita "wheel track, beaten path, rut, course, orbit" (see orb). Astronomical sense first recorded 1690s in English; it was in classical Latin, revived in Gerard of Cremona's translation of Avicenna. The Old English word for "eye socket" was eaghring.

orbit

1946, from orbit (n.). Related: Orbited; orbiting.

Wiktionary
orbit

n. 1 A circular or elliptical path of one object around another object. 2 A sphere of influence; an area of control. 3 The course of one's usual progression, or the extent of one's typical range. 4 (context anatomy English) The bony cavity containing the eyeball; the eye socket. 5 (context physics English) The path an electron takes around an atom's nucleus. 6 (context mathematics English) A collection of points related by the evolution function of a dynamical system. vb. 1 To circle or revolve around another object. 2 To move around the general vicinity of something. 3 To place an object into an orbit around a planet.

Related phrases:
WordNet
orbit

v. move in an orbit; "The moon orbits around the Earth"; "The planets are orbiting the sun"; "electrons orbit the nucleus" [syn: revolve]

orbit

  1. n. the (usually elliptical) path described by one celestial body in its revolution about another; "he plotted the orbit of the moon" [syn: celestial orbit]

  2. a particular environment or walk of life; "his social sphere is limited"; "it was a closed area of employment"; "he's out of my orbit" [syn: sphere, domain, area, field, arena]

  3. an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control: "the range of a supersonic jet"; "the ambit of municipal legislation"; "within the compass of this article"; "within the scope of an investigation"; "outside the reach of the law"; "in the political orbit of a world power" [syn: scope, range, reach, compass, ambit]

  4. the path of an electron around the nucleus of an atom [syn: electron orbit]

  5. the bony cavity in the skull containing the eyeball [syn: eye socket, cranial orbit, orbital cavity]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
ORBit

ORBit is a CORBA 2.4 compliant Object Request Broker (ORB). It features mature C, C++ and Python bindings, and less developed bindings for Perl, Lisp, Pascal, Ruby, and Tcl. Most of the code is distributed under the LGPL license, although the IDL compiler and utilities use the GPL.

ORBit was originally written to serve as middleware for the GNOME project, but has seen use outside of the project.

Orbit (dynamics)

In mathematics, in the study of dynamical systems, an orbit is a collection of points related by the evolution function of the dynamical system. The orbit is a subset of the phase space and the set of all orbits is a partition of the phase space, that is, different orbits do not intersect in the phase space. Understanding the properties of orbits by using topological methods is one of the objectives of the modern theory of dynamical systems.

For discrete-time dynamical systems, the orbits are sequences; for real dynamical systems, the orbits are curves; and for holomorphic dynamical systems, the orbits are Riemann surfaces.

Orbit (disambiguation)

Orbit is the gravitationally curved path of one object around a point or another body.

Orbit may also refer to:

Orbit (gum)

Orbit is a brand of sugarless chewing gum from the Wrigley Company. In the United States, where it was re-launched in 2001, it is sold in cardboard boxes with 14 individually wrapped pieces of gum per package. In the UK, where it was launched in 1977 it was originally sold as a traditional long-stick gum, later replaced by the same format as the US

Orbit White, packaged in blister packs of 12 pieces, was released to compete with Cadbury Adams' Trident White gum in 2001.

Orbit (scratch)
  1. redirect Turntablism#Orbit
Orbit (album)

Orbit is the first album by William Orbit. While all of his later solo albums are predominantly instrumental, this album consists mostly of songs with lyrics, with vocals performed by Peta Nikolich.

William has described the Orbit album as 'far from his best' and has suggested that listeners save their money for something else unless they are collecto-maniacs. Orbit has been deleted since the mid Eighties but was re-released without his permission in digital form by IRS to coincide with William's latest release My Oracle Lives Uptown (2009)

Orbit (control theory)

The notion of orbit of a control system used in mathematical control theory is a particular case of the notion of orbit in group theory.

Orbit (journal)

Orbit is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering developments and results from the variety of medical disciplines that overlap and converge in the field of orbital disorders: ophthalmology, otolaryngology, reconstructive and maxillofacial surgery, endocrinology, radiology, radiotherapy and oncology, neurology, neuro-ophthalmology and neurosurgery, pathology and immunology, and hematology.

Orbit (anatomy)

In anatomy, the orbit is the cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated. "Orbit" can refer to the bony socket, or it can also be used to imply the contents. In the adult human, the volume of the orbit is 30 mL, of which the eye occupies 6.5 mL. The orbital contents comprise the eye, the orbital and retrobulbar fascia, extraocular muscles, cranial nerves II, III, IV, V, and VI, blood vessels, fat, the lacrimal gland with its sac and nasolacrimal duct, the eyelids, medial and lateral palpebral ligaments, check ligaments, the suspensory ligament, septum, ciliary ganglion and short ciliary nerves.

Orbit (anthology series)

Orbit was an American long-running series of anthologies of new fiction edited by Damon Knight, often featuring work by such writers as Gene Wolfe, Joanna Russ, R. A. Lafferty, and Kate Wilhelm, who was married to Knight. The anthologies tended toward the avant-garde edge of science fiction, but by no means exclusively; occasionally the volumes would feature some nonfiction critical writing or humorous anecdotes by Knight. Inspired by Frederik Pohl's Star Science Fiction series, and in its turn an influence on Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions volumes and many others, it ran for over a decade and twenty-one volumes, not including a "Best-of" collection which covered the years 1966-1976.

Orbit (band)

Orbit is a Boston, Massachusetts-based power trio. Formed in 1994, the band went on hiatus in late 2001. Their initial releases were on drummer Buckley's own Lunch Records label before the band moved to major label A&M Records. They completed recording their second major label album, "Guide To Better Living", but it was never released by A&M. The band then moved back to Lunch Records for the rest of their releases.

Perhaps the high point of the band's career was the hit, "Medicine", and their presence on the 1997 Lollapalooza tour. They also had the song, "XLR8R", included on the soundtrack of the PlayStation 2 game, FreQuency.

Orbit played two reunion shows on December 28 and 29, 2007, at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, MA. They performed with also defunct Boston indie rock group The Sheila Divine.

Orbit performed a show on January 14, 2011, at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, MA with The Sheila Divine.

Orbit (mascot)

Orbit is the name given to Major League Baseball's Houston Astros mascot, a lime-green outer-space creature wearing an Astros jersey with antennae extending into baseballs. Orbit was the team's official mascot from the 1990 through the 1999 seasons until the 2000 season, where Junction Jack was introduced as the team's mascot with the move from the Astrodome to then Enron Field. Orbit returned on November 2, 2012 at the unveiling of the Astros new look for their 2013 debut in the American League. The name Orbit pays homage to Houston's association with NASA and nickname Space City.

Orbit (horse)

Orbit (foaled 1885) was a Thoroughbred racehorse. He was trained at Kingsclere by John Porter for the 1st Duke of Westminster. As a three-year-old he won the Eclipse Stakes.

Orbit (Brown/Mazzola/Geisser album)

Orbit is a collaborative album by American jazz saxophonist Rob Brown and the Swiss duo composed of pianist Guerino Mazzola and percussionist Heinz Geisser. It was recorded in 1996 and released on the Music & Arts label. Mazzola and Geisser worked together since 1994, before this album they played as a trio of similar instrumentation with Swiss saxophonist Mathias Rissi instead of Brown.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "orbit".

If we only consider the mean or average effect in orbits nearly circular, this force may be considered as an ablatitious force at all distances below the mean, counterbalanced by an opposite effect at all distances above the mean.

My ship abuilding out in the construction orbits was human-designed and human-built, but most of the construction, and all of the drive and communications systems, were adapted from Heechee designs.

Grounders never got used to the fact that in orbit, you decelerated by firing your rockets to move into a higher, slower orbit, and accelerated by using your retros to drop into a lower, faster orbit.

Mere minutes after the decoys had completed their burns, six COREs, accelerating at a terrifying rate, suddenly lifted out of orbit toward the decoys.

Adikor, speaking directly to the adjudicator, before the orbiting Bolbay blocked his line of sight again.

Orbit Approach, this is Starship Impris, Faber Eridani registry Sierra Alfa Niner-Four-Two-Seven-Two, with you at half a million kilometers.

There was this lump of iron that I had dragged all the way back from the Galactic West, encased in aluminum and neutronium and alnico magnets, hanging there in its orbit, quite useless, so far, but potentially extremely useful.

Wherever they sailed, the dense schools of amberjack and billfish observed from orbit turned and headed for waters that were colder and deeper than anything they normally inhabited.

Q-ship in orbit around Travancore and the control room of Anabasis Headquarters were close, an infinitesimal Link-space distance apart.

If the radial disturbing force be exterior to the disturbed body, it will diminish the central force, and cause a progressive motion in the aphelion point of the orbit.

And, we might also ask, why the tangential resistance to the comet of Encke should not also produce a retrograde motion in the apsides of the orbit, instead of diminishing its period?

Upon reaching a point some twenty-five miles northeast of El Arish, he would reverse course and begin their orbit.

And even then the pull of Jupiter would be forever changing asteroidal orbits here and there.

Their fixed trajectory had kept them blindside to 13 throughout the entire orbit of planet-four.

But when he looked through his outer eyes and saw, only light-years away, a likely sun, he blinked to it, saw its family, orbited the likely planets and went through his routine.