Heliocentric orbit

A heliocentric orbit (also called circumsolar orbit) is an orbit around the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in our Solar System are in such orbits, as are many artificial probes and pieces of debris. The moons of planets in the Solar System, by contrast, are not in heliocentric orbits as they orbit their respective planet. An interior heliocentric orbit is an orbit inside the orbit of the Earth, for example the orbit of Venus. An exterior heliocentric orbit is an orbit outside the orbit of the Earth, for example the orbit of Mars.

While it is convenient to think of orbits around the Sun, bodies in the Solar System do not actually orbit the Sun. Instead, all bodies in the Solar System (including the Sun) actually orbit the barycenter of the Solar System. A similar phenomenon allows the detection of extrasolar planets by way of the radial velocity method.

The helio- prefix is derived from the ancient Greek word helios, meaning "sun", and also Helios, the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology.^[1]

See also

• Heliocentrism
• Geocentric orbit
• List of artificial objects in heliocentric orbit
• List of orbits
• Earth's orbit

References

1. ^ "helio-". Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House. 2006. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/helio-. Retrieved 2009-02-12. 

This article related to the Sun is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Celestial mechanics Orbits Sun stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат? Ross Fitzpatrick Naveen Jindal Look at other dictionaries: List of artificial objects in heliocentric orbit — Below is a current list of artificial objects currently in heliocentric orbit. These do not include man made objects which are escaping from the Solar System (Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and New Horizons), Agena, Centaur, or IUS …   Wikipedia Heliocentric Julian Day — (HJD) is the same as the Julian day, but adjusted to the frame of reference of the Sun, and thus can differ from the Julian day by as much as 8.4 minutes (i.e. 507 seconds or 0.00587 days), that being the time it takes the Sun s light to reach… …   Wikipedia Orbit — This article is about orbits in celestial mechanics, due to gravity. For other uses, see Orbit (disambiguation). A satellite orbiting the Earth has a tangential velocity and an inward acceleration …   Wikipedia Orbit of the Moon — Not to be confused with Lunar orbit in the sense of a selenocentric orbit, that is, an orbit around the Moon The Moon completes its orbit around the Earth in approximately 27.3 days (a sidereal month). The Earth and Moon orbit about their… …   Wikipedia heliocentric parallax — noun the parallax of a celestial body using two points in the earth s orbit around the sun as the baseline • Syn: ↑annual parallax • Hypernyms: ↑parallax • Hyponyms: ↑stellar parallax * * * noun …   Useful english dictionary Orbit equation — In astrodynamics an orbit equation defines the path of orbiting body around central body relative to , without specifying position as a function of time. Under standard assumptions, a body moving under the influence of a force, directed to a… …   Wikipedia Orbit phasing — In astrodynamics orbit phasing is the adjustment of the time position of spacecraft along its orbit, usually described as adjusting the orbiting spacecraft s true anomaly. This is predominantly used in satellite positioning, especially if the… …   Wikipedia orbit — Synonyms and related words: Earth insertion, LEM, LM, O, air lane, ambit, annular muscle, annulus, aphelion, apogee, area, arena, areola, astronomical longitude, attitude control rocket, aureole, autumnal equinox, bailiwick, ball, ballistic… …   Moby Thesaurus heliocentric — adjective /ˌhiːliəʊˈsɛntrɪk,ˌhiːlioʊˈsɛntrɪk/ having the sun at the center/centre; usually in reference to a solar system or orbit Ant: geocentric …   Wiktionary Geocentric orbit — Earth orbit redirects here. For the motion of the Earth around the Sun, see Earth s orbit. Earth orbiter redirects here. For the shuttle simulator, see Earth Orbiter 1. The following words may have more than one definition or other non Earth… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”