Crossword clues for periapsis
Wiktionary
n. (context astronomy English) The point of a body's elliptical orbit about the system's centre of mass where the distance between the body and the centre of mass is at its minimum.
WordNet
n. (astronomy) the point in as orbit closest to the body being orbited [syn: point of periapsis] [ant: apoapsis, apoapsis]
Usage examples of "periapsis".
Change as well--when the Twins reached the periapsis of their path around the Black Gate.
When we reach the periapsis at seventeen-hundred hours, Landers One and Two will be launched.
During a normal timetable, we would execute periapsis burn for Earth encounter thirty minutes later, at eighteen-thirty, but for this mission we will have a minor glitch in the targeting computer, causing a disagreement in the primary AI interface.
We would meet the moon itself, with our supply depot, after our main engine burn at periapsis put us in an elliptical transfer orbit.
They sped toward Mars well ahead of us, and data started streaming in as we passed the atmosphere-grazing periapsis of our orbit.
Successive orbits would slow them further at periapsis, the part of each orbit where they would be closest to the planet, until the gravity of Mars had captured them into a comfortable, almost circular orbit 279 miles above the surface.