mean motion


mean motion

The constant angular speed that is required for a celestial body to complete one revolution of an (undisturbed) elliptical orbit of a specified semimajor axis.

Mean Motion

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

Because celestial bodies move in elliptical orbits, their speed varies depending upon their location. Mean motion refers to their average speed.

Mean Motion

 

an element, or parameter, of the orbit of a celestial body that characterizes the dimensions of the orbit. The relation between the mean motion and the semimajor axis of the orbit is given by Kepler’s third law: the larger the semimajor axis, the more slowly the body, on the average, moves in its orbit. (SeeORBIT OF A CELESTIAL BODY.)

mean motion

[′mēn ′mō·shən] (astronomy) The speed which a planet or its satellite would have if it were moving in a circular orbit with radius equal to its distance from the sun or a central planet with a period equal to its actual period.