perigee

noun — 3 senses

perigee

noun

UK /ˈpɛɹ.ɪ.d͡ʒiː/ · US /ˈpɛɹ.ə.d͡ʒi/

Etymology From French périgée via Latin perigeum, perigaeum, ultimately from Ancient Greek περί (perí, “near”) + γῆ (gê, “Earth”).

1

Astronomy, Natural sciences The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is closest to the Earth: the periapsis of an Earth orbiter.

  • 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.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:
2

Astronomy, Natural sciences Broadly The point, in an orbit about any planet, that is closest to the planet: the periapsis of any satellite.

  • 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.1995, John H. Rogers, The Giant Planet Jupiter, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 335:
  • 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).2002, Serge Brunier, Solar System Voyage, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 36:
1 more example
  • [Nereid’s] apogee—farthest point from Neptune—is five times the distance of its perigee—its closest point.2010, Ruth Walker, Mary M. Shaffrey, et al., Exploring Space: The High Frontier, Jones & Bartlett Learning, →ISBN, page 129:
3

The point, in any trajectory of an object in space, where it is closest to the Earth.

Possibly archaic outside astrology

Antonyms
apogee
Derived terms
perigeal, perigean, perigee moon
Related terms
periapsis, periastron, perihelion
Hyponyms
proxigee

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.