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The celestial orb which revolves round the earth; the satellite of the earth; a secondary planet, whose light, borrowed from the sun, is reflected to the earth, and serves to dispel the darkness of night. The diameter of the moon is 2,160 miles, its mean distance from the earth is 240,000 miles, and its mass is one eig…

rring in the morning; -- a common sign of pregnancy. -- Morning star. (a) Any one of the planets (Venus, Jupiter, Mars, or Saturn) when it precedes the sun in rising, esp. Venus. Cf. Evening star, Evening. (b) Satan. See Lucifer. Since he miscalled the morning star, Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so far. Byron.…

Direction of movement; course; tendency; as, the motion of the planets is from west to east. In our proper motion we ascend. Milton.

a. Nebular hypothesis, an hypothesis to explain the process of formation of the stars and planets, presented in various forms by Kant, Herschel, Laplace, and others. As formed by Laplace, it supposed the matter of the solar system to have existed originally in the form of a vast, diffused, revolving nebula, which, grad…

The remotest known planet of our system, discovered -- as a result of the computations of Leverrier, of Paris -- by Galle, of Berlin, September 23, 1846. Its mean distance from the sun is about 2,775,000,000 miles, and its period of revolution is about 164,78 years. Neptune powder, an explosive containing nitroglycerin…

although existing before; lately manifested; recently discovered; as, a new metal; a new planet; new scenes.

west; western; -- opposed to oriental; as, occidental climates, or customs; an occidental planet.

tion of some other of the heavenly bodies; -- applied especially to eclipses of stars and planets by the moon, and to the eclipses of satellites of planets by their primaries.

The position or aspect of a heavenly body, as the moon or a planet, when half way between conjunction, or opposition, and quadrature, or distant from another body 45 degrees.

er when in the part of the heavens directly opposite to it; especially, the position of a planet or satellite when its longitude differs from that of the sun 180º; -- signified by the symbol as, .

A spherical body; a globe; especially, one of the celestial spheres; a sun, planet, or star. In the small orb of one particular tear. Shak. Whether the prime orb, Incredible how swift, had thither rolled. Milton.

rbiculate. -- Or*bic"u*lar*ly, adv. -- Or*bic"u*lar*ness, n. Orbicular as the disk of a planet. De Quincey.

Of or relating to the time or act of rising; eastern; as, the ortive amplitude of a planet.

ric. -- Paracentric motton or velocity, the motion or velocity of a revolving body, as a planet, by which it approaches to, or recedes from, the center, without reference to its motion in space, or to its motion as reckoned in any other direction.

the body by lines drawn from it to the earth and sun; as, the heliocentric parallax of a planet. -- Horizontal parallax, the geocentric parallx of a heavenly body when in the horizon, or the angle subtended at the body by the earth's radius. -- Optical parallax, the apparent displacement in position undergone by an…

It is sometimes, but rarely, used of the nearest points of other orbits, as of a comet, a planet, etc. Called also epigee, epigeum.

That point of the orbit of a planet or comet which is nearest to the sun; -- opposed to Ant: aphelion.

volution; proceeding in a series of successive circuits; as, the periodical motion of the planets round the sun.

me force additional to that which causes its regular motion; as, the perturbations of the planets are caused by their attraction on each other. Newcomb.

Of or pertaining to perturbation, esp. to the perturbations of the planets. "The perturbational theory." Sir J. Herschel.