orbit

orbit

1. Astronomy the curved path, usually elliptical, followed by a planet, satellite, comet, etc., in its motion around another celestial body under the influence of gravitation

2. Anatomy the bony cavity containing the eyeball

3. Zoology

a. the skin surrounding the eye of a bird

b. the hollow in which lies the eye or eyestalk of an insect or other arthropod

4. Physics the path of an electron in its motion around the nucleus of an atom

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

orbit

(or -bit) The path followed by a celestial object or an artificial satellite or spaceprobe that is moving in a gravitational field. For a single object moving freely in the gravitational field of a massive body the orbit is a conic section, in actuality either elliptical or hyperbolic. Closed (repeated) orbits are elliptical, most planetary orbits being almost circular. A hyperbolic orbit results in the object escaping from the vicinity of a massive body. See also Kepler's laws; orbital elements.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

Orbit

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

An orbit is the path in space that one heavenly body makes in its movement around another heavenly body. The Moon, for example, makes an orbit around Earth, while Earth and the other planets make orbits around the Sun. The technical name for the orbiting body is satellite. The orbited body is called a primary. Because primaries are also in motion, the orbits described by satellites are elliptical rather than circular.

Satellites form stable orbits by counterbalancing two forces—their movement away from the primary and the force of gravity drawing them back toward the primary. In other words, in the absence of gravity a satellite would move in a straight line, which would soon take it away from its primary; in the absence of satellite motion, gravity would draw a satellite and its primary together until they collided.

Sources:

Robinson, J. Hedley, and James Muirden. Astronomy Data Book. 2d ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979.

Smoluchowski, Roman. The Solar System: The Sun, Planets, and Life. New York: Scientific American Books, 1983.

The Astrology Book, Second Edition © 2003 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.

orbit

[′ȯr·bət]

(anatomy)

The bony cavity in the lateral front of the skull beneath the frontal bone which contains the eyeball. Also known as eye socket.

(mathematics)

Let G be a group which operates on a set S ; the orbit of an element s of S under G is the subset of S consisting of all elements gs where g is in G.

(oceanography)

The path of a water particle affected by wave motion; it is almost circular in deep-water waves and almost elliptical in shallow-water waves.

(physics)

Any closed path followed by a particle or body, such as the orbit of a celestial body under the influence of gravity, the elliptical path followed by electrons in the Bohr theory, or the paths followed by particles in a circular particle accelerator.

More generally, any path followed by a particle, such as helical paths of particles in a magnetic field, or the parabolic path of a comet.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Orbit

A Scheme compiler.

["Orbit: An Optimising Compiler for Scheme", D.A. Kranz et al, SIGPLAN Notices 21(7):281-292 (Jul 1986)].

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