peribothron
nounEtymology From peri- + Ancient Greek βόθρος (bóthros, “pit”) + -(i)on.
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Astronomy, Natural sciences The point in an elliptical orbit around a black hole where the orbiting body is closest to the black hole.
- We also examine the final peribothra q of these orbits to ensure that they are consistent with the observed value for S0-2.2003 August, A Gould& AC Quillen, “Sagittarius A* companion S0-2: a probe of very high mass star formation”, in The Astrophysical Journal, volume 592, number 2:
- On subsequent peribothra further tidal interactions take place, gradually causing the orbit to decay.2006 July, LM Dray, AR King, MB Davies, “Young stars in the Galactic Centre: a potential intermediate-mass star origin”, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 372, number 1:
1 more example
- Galaxies harboring an isolated SMBH at their center are expected to quickly clear a "loss cone" of orbits whose angular momenta about the black hole are low enough that their peribothra lie inside rₜ .2011, C Wegg, JN Bode, “Multiple tidal disruptions as an indicator of binary supermassive black hole systems”, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters:
- Synonyms
- perimelasma, perinigricon
- Related terms
- periapsis