PERIGEE (Gr. zrepi, near, 'A', the

See also:

• EARTH
• EARTH (a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Erde, Dutch aarde, Swed. and Dan. jord; outside Teutonic it appears only in the Gr. 'pq'e, on the ground; it has been connected by some etymologists with the Aryan root ar-, to plough, which is seen in
• EARTH, FIGURE OF
• EARTH, FIGURE OF THE

earth)  , in astronomy that point of the moon's orbit or of the sun's apparent orbit at which the moon or sun approach nearest to the earth . The sun's perigee and the earth's perihelion are so related that they differ 18o° in longitude, the first being on the line from the earth toward the sun, and the second from the sun toward the earth . The longitude of the solar perigee is now ro1°, that of the earth's perihelion 281° .