apsidal precession
Ellipse axis shift
Apsidal precession is the gradual rotation of an orbit's closest and farthest points around the central body.
In planetary orbits, this means the point of closest approach (perihelion) slowly shifts position over time, tracing a rosette pattern rather than retracing the same ellipse.
Mercury's apsidal precession provided early evidence for Einstein's general relativity: The anomalous precession of Mercury's perihelion couldn't be explained by Newtonian mechanics alone.
- orbitalRevolving around another
- perihelionOrbital point nearest sun
- ellipseConic section curve
- wobbleUnsteady side-to-side motion
- celestialOf the sky above
mechanics · rotation · axis · Mercury · relativity · Einstein · anomaly · orbit · equinox · gravitational · planet · aphelion · Newtonian · shift · cycle · astronomy · ecliptic · longitude
- orbital cyclesMilankovitch cycles, eccentricity, obliquity, elliptical orbit, nutation
- lunar cyclesfull moon, new moon, crescent moon, half moon, waxing crescent
- orbital mechanicsorbital mechanics, eccentricity, inclination, apogee, perigee
precession, procession, processional, ceding, cession, recede, secede, precede