Apsis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perihelion

Apsis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For Edenbridge's album, see Aphelion (album).

For the literary journal Perigee, see Perigee: Publication for the Arts.
In celestial mechanics, an apsis, plural apsides (pronounced
/psdiz/) is the point of greatest or least distance of the
elliptical orbit of an object from its center of attraction, which is
generally the center of mass of the system.
The point of closest approach (the point at which two bodies are
the closest) is called the periapsis or pericentre, from Greek
, peri, around. The point of farthest excursion is called the
apoapsis (, ap, "from", which becomes -, ap- or -,
aph- before an unaspirated or aspirated vowel, respectively),
apocentre or apapsis (the latter term, although etymologically more
correct, is much less used). A straight line drawn through the
periapsis and apoapsis is the line of apsides. This is the major axis of
the ellipse, the line through the longest part of the ellipse.
Derivative terms are used to identify the body being orbited. The most
common are perigee and apogee, referring to orbits around the
Earth (Greek , g, "earth"), and perihelion and aphelion, referring
to orbits around the Sun (Greek , hlios, "sun"). During the
Apollo program, the terms pericynthion and apocynthion were used
when referring to the moon.
Illustration of Closest Approach
of 2 celestial bodies

Contents
1 Formula
2 Terminology
3 Earth's perihelion and aphelion
4 Planetary perihelion and aphelion
5 See also
6 Notes and references
7 External links

Formula

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These formulae characterize the periapsis and apoapsis of an

orbit:
Periapsis: maximum speed

at

minimum (periapsis) distance

Apoapsis: minimum speed

at

maximum (apoapsis) distance

while, in accordance with Kepler's laws of planetary motion
(conservation of angular momentum) and the conservation of
energy, these quantities are constant for a given orbit:
specific relative angular momentum

specific orbital energy

Keplerian orbital elements: F is the

periapsis, H the apoapsis and the red line
between them the line of apsides

where:
is the semi-major axis
is the standard gravitational parameter
is the eccentricity, defined as
Note that for conversion from heights above the surface to distances between an orbit and its primary,
the radius of the central body has to be added, and conversely.
The arithmetic mean of the two limiting distances is the length of the semi-major axis . The geometric
mean of the two distances is the length of the semi-minor axis .
The geometric means of the two limiting speeds is
, the speed corresponding to a kinetic energy
which, at any position of the orbit, added to the existing kinetic energy, would allow the orbiting body to
escape (the square root of the product of the two speeds is the local escape velocity).

Terminology
The words "pericenter" and "apocenter" are occasionally seen, although periapsis/apoapsis are
preferred in technical usage.
Various related terms are used for other celestial objects. The '-gee', '-helion' and '-astron' and
'-galacticon' forms are frequently used in the astronomical literature, while the other listed forms are
occasionally used, although '-saturnium' has very rarely been used in the last 50 years. The '-gee' form is
commonly (although incorrectly) used as a generic 'closest approach to planet' term instead of
specifically applying to the Earth. The term peri/apomelasma (from the Greek root) was used by physicist
Geoffrey A. Landis in 1998 before peri/aponigricon (from the Latin) appeared in the scientific literature in
2002

[1]

.
Body

25

Closest approach

Farthest approach

Galaxy

Perigalacticon

Apogalacticon

Star

Periastron

Apastron

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Black hole Perimelasma/Peribothra/Perinigricon

Apomelasma/Apobothra/Aponigricon

Sun

Perihelion

Aphelion

Mercury

Perihermion

Apohermion

Venus

Pericytherion/Pericytherean/Perikrition Apocytherion/Apocytherean/Apokrition

Earth

Perigee

Apogee

Moon

Periselene/Pericynthion/Perilune

Aposelene/Apocynthion/Apolune

Mars

Periareion

Apoareion

Jupiter

Perizene/Perijove

Apozene/Apojove

Saturn

Perikrone/Perisaturnium

Apokrone/Aposaturnium

Uranus

Periuranion

Apouranion

Neptune

Periposeidion

Apoposeidion

Pluto

Perihadion

Apohadion

[2]

[3]

Since "peri" and "apo" are Greek, it is considered by some purists more correct to use the Greek form
for the body, giving forms such as '-zene' for Jupiter and '-krone' for Saturn. The daunting prospect of
having to maintain a different word for every orbitable body in the solar system (and beyond) is the main
reason why the generic '-apsis' has become the almost universal norm.
In the Moon's case, in practice all three forms are used, albeit very infrequently. The '-cynthion'
form is, according to some, reserved for artificial bodies, whilst others reserve '-lune' for an object
launched from the Moon and '-cynthion' for an object launched from elsewhere. The '-cynthion'
form was the version used in the Apollo Project, following a NASA decision in 1964.
For Venus, the form '-cytherion' is derived from the commonly used adjective 'cytherean'; the
alternate form '-krition' (from Kritias, an older name for Aphrodite) has also been suggested.
For Jupiter, the '-jove' form is occasionally used by astronomers whilst the '-zene' form is never
used, like the other pure Greek forms ('-areion' (Mars), '-hermion' (Mercury), '-krone' (Saturn),
'-uranion' (Uranus), '-poseidion' (Neptune) and '-hadion' (Pluto)).

Earth's perihelion and aphelion

For the Earth's orbit around the sun, the time of apsis is most relevantly expressed in terms of a time
relative to seasons, for that will determine the contribution of the elliptic orbit to seasonal forcing,
meaning the annual variation in insolation at the top of the atmosphere. This forcing is primarily
controlled by the annual cycle of the declination of the sun, a consequence of the tilt of the Earth's
rotation axis relative to the plane of the orbit. Currently, perihelion occurs about 14 days after the
northern hemisphere's winter solstice, making its winters milder than they would be otherwise, and
southern hemisphere winters more extreme. The time of perihelion progresses through the seasons,
making one complete cycle in 22,000 to 26,000 years, a contribution to Milankovitch cycles, a forcing of
the ice ages, known as precession.
A common convention is to express the timing of perihelion relative to the vernal equinox not in days, but
as an angle of orbital displacement, a longitude of the periapsis. For Earth's orbit, this would be a
longitude of perihelion, which in 2000 AD was 282.895 degrees
[A]

The day and hour

.
[5]

(UT) of perihelion and aphelion for the next few years are:

Year
2007

35

[4]

Perihelion

Aphelion

Date

Hour

Date

Hour

January 3

20:00

July 7

00:00

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2008

January 3

00:00

July 4

08:00

2009

January 4

15:00

July 4

02:00

2010

January 3

00:00

July 6

11:00

2011

January 3

19:00

July 4

15:00

2012

January 5

00:00

July 5

03:00

2013

January 2

05:00

July 5

15:00

2014

January 4

12:00

July 4

00:00

2015

January 4

07:00

July 6

19:00

2016

January 2

23:00

July 4

16:00

2017

January 4

14:00

July 3

20:00

2018

January 3

06:00

July 6

17:00

2019

January 3

05:00

July 4

22:00

2020

January 5

08:00

July 4

12:00

Planetary perihelion and aphelion

The images below show the Perihelion and Aphelion points of the inner and outer planets respectively.
Perihelion and aphelion points

Inner planets

Outer planets

See also
Eccentric anomaly
Elliptic orbit

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Notes and references

A. ^ The source data is specific only to the hour; the table value minutes are placeholders only.
1. ^ R. Schodel, T. Ott, R. Genzel, R. Hofmann, M. Lehnert, A. Eckart, N. Mouawad, T. Alexander, M.J. Reid, R.
Lenzen, M. Hartung, F. Lacombe, D. Rouan, E. Gendron, G. Rousset, A.-M. Lagrange, W. Brandner, N.
Ageorges, C. Lidman, A.F.M. Moorwood, J. Spyromilio, N. Hubin, and K.M. Menten, "Closest Star Seen
Orbiting the Supermassive Black Hole at the Centre of the Milky Way," Nature 419, 694-696 (17 October
2002), doi:10.1038/nature01121.
2. ^ Properly pronounced 'affelion' because the (neo) Greek is , although the hypercorrection 'ap-helion'
is commonly heard.
3. ^ "Apsis
". Glossary of Terms. National Solar Observatory. 2005-02-21. http://www.nso.edu/press
/glossary.html#apsis
. Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
4. ^ http://aom.giss.nasa.gov/srorbpar.html
5. ^ Earth's Seasons Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion - 2000-2020 (http://aa.usno.navy.mil
/data/docs/EarthSeasons.php)
U.S. Naval Observatory, Astronomical Applications Department;
2003-10-30 (accessed 2007-05-06).

External links
Apogee - Perigee (http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Lunar-Scenes-Apo-Perigee.htm)
Photographic
Size Comparison
Aphelion - Perihelion (http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Solar-Scenes-Aph-Perihelion.htm)
Photographic Size Comparison
Aphelion - Perihelion Dates and Times (http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac
/seasondate.htm)
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Categories: Celestial mechanics | Orbits | Astrodynamics | Earth
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