Apogee
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈæpədʒi/
Origin
From French apogée, from Latin apogaeum, apogeum, from Ancient Greek ἀπόγειον (apogeion, "away from Earth"), from ἀπό (apo, "away") + γῆ (gē, "Earth").
Full definition of apogee
Noun
apogee
(plural apogees)- (astronomy) The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is furthest from the Earth: the apoapsis of an Earth orbiter.
- (astronomy, more generally) The point, in an orbit about any planet, that is farthest from the planet: the apoapsis of any satellite.
- 1995, John H. Rogers, The Giant Planet Jupiter, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-41008-3, page 335:Conjunctions of I and II and Europa occur when they are near perigee and apogee respectively; conjunctions of II and III and Ganymede occur when II Europa is near perigee.
- 2002, Serge Brunier, Solar System Voyage, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-80724-1, page 36:The resolution of the images obtained by this American probe Messenger will depend on its altitude Mercury at any one time: about ten meters at perigee (200km altitude), but only one 1 km at apogee (15000km).
- 2010, Ruth Walker and Mary M. Shaffrey et al., Exploring Space: The High Frontier, Jones & Bartlett Learning, ISBN 978-0-7637-8961-9, page 129:Nereid’s apogee—farthest point from Neptune—is five times the distance of its perigee—its closest point.
- (perhaps archaic except astrology) The point, in any trajectory of an object in space, where it is furthest from the Earth.
- (figuratively) The highest point.
- 2004 March 22, The New Yorker:The cult of the chief executive reached its apogee in the nineteen-nineties, a period when C.E.O.s seemed not so much to serve their companies as to embody them.