An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

Relating to → osculate.

Participial adjective of → osculate.

The circle that touches a curve (on the concave side) and whose radius is the radius of curvature.

→ osculating; → circle.

The orbital elements of an osculating orbit.

→ osculating; → element.

The Keplerian orbit that a satellite would follow after a specific time t if all forces other than central inverse-square forces ceased to act from time t on. An osculating orbit is tangent to the real, perturbed, orbit and has the same velocity at the point of tangency.

→ osculating; → orbit.

For a curve C at a point p, the limiting plane obtained from taking planes through the tangent to C at p and containing some variable point p' and then letting p' approach p along C.

→ osculating; → plane.

For a curve C at a point p, the limiting sphere obtained by taking the sphere that passes through p and three other points on C and then letting these three points approach p independently along C.

→ osculating; → sphere.