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The term retrograde is from the Latin word retrogradus – "backward-step", the affix retro-meaning "backwards" and gradus "step". Retrograde is most commonly an adjective used to describe the path of a planet as it travels through the night sky, with respect to the zodiac, stars, and other bodies of the celestial canopy. In this context, the ...
Retrograde orbit: the satellite (red) orbits in the direction opposite to the rotation of its primary (blue/black) Retrograde motion in astronomy is, in general, orbital or rotational motion of an object in the direction opposite the rotation of its primary, that is, the central object (right figure).
The average distance between Neptune and the Sun is 4.5 billion km (about 30.1 astronomical units (AU), the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun), and it completes an orbit on average every 164.79 years, subject to a variability of around ±0.1 years. The perihelion distance is 29.81 AU, and the aphelion distance is 30.33 AU.
No, Mercury isn't the only planet that goes retrograde.
The term does not refer to shape; Triton, for example, is a round moon but is considered irregular due to its orbit and origins. As of February 2024 [update] , 228 irregular moons are known, orbiting all four of the outer planets ( Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune ).
For the past 5 million years, Earth's obliquity has varied between 22°2′33″ and 24°30′16″, with a mean period of 41,040 years. This cycle is a combination of precession and the largest term in the motion of the ecliptic. For the next 1 million years, the cycle will carry the obliquity between 22°13′44″ and 24°20′50″. [25]
from Latin periodus (“complete sentence, period, circuit”), from Ancient Greek períodos (“cycle, period of time”) farer: ion: from Greek neuter present participle of ienai, meaning "to go". samestead: isotope: Greek roots isos (ἴσος "equal") and topos (τόπος "place"), meaning "the same place"
Carl Runge and Wilhelm Lenz much later identified a symmetry principle in the phase space of planetary motion (the orthogonal group O(4) acting) which accounts for the first and third laws in the case of Newtonian gravitation, as conservation of angular momentum does via rotational symmetry for the second law.