Comments on: Best of the Times Top Ten Space Moments: The Moon Sunk Titanic

By: Eric Lund

Eric Lund — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:55:25 +0000

I suppose, rather than searching for the appropriate Greek names of each celestial object, we will probably settle for apogee and perigee as generic terms.

Generic terms already exist: periapsis for closest point and apoapsis for farthest point. When the central body is a star (other than the Sun), the terms periastron and apastron are often used.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:13:25 +0000

aphelion! Thats what I meant. As I typed Apogee I thoiught “Is that right? Damn…. someone will correct me if I’m wrong” and I actually wanted to look it up but was late for an appointment that I had to go to sans morning coffee. So it was bad.

I should have just said “close, it was really close, and so was that other thing”

By: David Evans

David Evans — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 23:54:53 +0000

“Earth was at it’s Annual Apogee in relation to the Sun”

Strictly, apogee means “farthest from the Earth”. The word you wanted was aphelion. In fact, however, the most extreme tides occur when Earth is at its closest to the Sun (perihelion) and the Moon is closest to the Earth (perigee), as was the case on that January 4.

I suppose, rather than searching for the appropriate Greek names of each celestial object, we will probably settle for apogee and perigee as generic terms.