Perigee

This is about the orbital parameter. For the quarterly publication, see Perigee: Publication for the Arts.

When the Moon is closest, it is at perigee, and it looks slightly bigger from Earth. See Libration

Perigee is the point at which an object makes its closest approach to the Earth. Often the term is used in a broader sense to define the point in an orbit where the orbiting body is closest to the body it orbits. The opposite is the apogee, the farthest or highest point.

The Greek prefix "peri" means close or near. The suffix "gee", derived from Gaea, means Earth. Merriam-Webster says word comes from Middle French, based on earlier Latin and Greek phrases.

Perigee is part of the broader family of "apses", astronomical terms which denote distances of orbiting bodies. Since all orbits are elliptical, each orbit contains both a nearest point and a farthest point.

See also

• Supermoon
• Apsis
• Eccentric anomaly
• Elliptic orbit

External links

• Apogee - Perigee Photographic Size Comparison