Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The point at which an orbiting object is farthest away from the center of mass of the body it is orbiting.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun astronomy The
point of abody 'selliptical orbit about thesystem 'scentre ofmass where thedistance between the body and the centre of mass is at itsmaximum .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (astronomy) the point in an orbit farthest from the body being orbited
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Aerobraking would both require an out-of-plane orbit to keep from running the gauntlet of the ring particles for millions of km every orbit and, once the apoapsis was lowered to the distance of the rings, leave the craft moving far slower than the orbital speed of the rings.
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Aerobraking would both require an out-of-plane orbit to keep from running the gauntlet of the ring particles for millions of km every orbit and, once the apoapsis was lowered to the distance of the rings, leave the craft moving far slower than the orbital speed of the rings.
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This was the apoapsis maneuver setting up for the Titan 71 encounter on July 7.
SpaceRef Top Stories 2010
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Just a few hours later, apoapsis and the start of orbit #107 would have occurred.
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Today Imaging Science (ISS) acquired high priority science data for an 11-hour movie of the streamer-channel feature raised in the F-ring by the apoapsis passage of Prometheus.
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However, because of the gravitational influence of Titan during the flyby, Cassini's orbit is modified such that apoapsis on the new Saturn centered orbit occurs prior to the Titan encounter, on an orbit different from the one Cassini actually flew.
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All apoapsis maneuver numbers up to this point have been divisible by three.
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Just a few hours later, apoapsis and the start of orbit #107 would have occurred.
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How is it that at one moment Cassini can be found nearly at apoapsis, the farthest point from Saturn in an orbit, and within a day, be at periapsis, the closest point to Saturn in an orbit, when its orbital period is around 16 days?
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This is the apoapsis maneuver setting up for the Titan 47 encounter on Nov. 19.
SpaceRef Top Stories 2008
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