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TRAJECTORY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The path followed by an object moving through space
Synonyms:
flight; trajectory
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("trajectory" is a kind of...):
mechanical phenomenon (a physical phenomenon associated with the equilibrium or motion of objects)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "trajectory"):
ballistic trajectory; ballistics (the trajectory of an object in free flight)
gravity-assist ((spaceflight) a trajectory that passes close to a planetary body in order to gain energy from its gravitational field)
Context examples:
In collaboration with the researchers from Liverpool John Moore University, the UGR researchers used statistical techniques to analyse the full kinematics curves, based on tracing point trajectories.
(Researchers identify the maximum weight that children should carry in their school backpacks, University of Granada)
The Sausage’s piercing trajectory meant that the Milky Way’s disk was probably puffed up or even fractured following the impact, and the Milky Way had to re-grow a new disk.
(The Gaia Sausage: the major collision that changed the Milky Way, University of Cambridge)
According to the analysis, 'Oumuamua's motion through our solar system is puzzling, appearing to accelerate along its trajectory — a typical feature of comets — but showing no evidence of the gaseous emissions that typically create this acceleration.
('Oumuamua interstellar object was not an alien spacecraft, National Science Foundation)
The IceCube Collaboration research team found that fewer energetic neutrinos made it to IceCube's detector on paths that took them all the way through the Earth than from less obstructed paths, including near-horizontal trajectories.
(Antarctic detector offers first look at how Earth stops high-energy neutrinos in their tracks, National Science Foundation)
To accurately fly by and point the spacecraft's instruments at a smorgasbord of targets, engineers used trajectory correction maneuver, or TCM, thrusters that are identical in size and functionality to the attitude control thrusters, and are located on the back side of the spacecraft.
(Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years, NASA)
A handful of telescopes deployed by the New Horizons team in a remote part of Patagonia, Argentina were in the right place at the right time to catch its fleeting shadow — an event known as an occultation – and were able to capture important data to help mission flyby planners better determine the spacecraft trajectory and understand the size, shape, orbit and environment around MU69.
(New Horizons' Next Target Just Got a Lot More Interesting, NASA)
Currently on an inbound trajectory, comet C/2019 Q4 is heading toward the inner solar system.
(Newly Discovered Comet Is Likely Interstellar Visitor, NASA)
The CNEOS team plotted the object's current trajectory and even looked into its future.
(Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System, NASA)
If greenhouse gas concentrations remain on their current trajectory, melting ice from Greenland alone could contribute as much as 24 feet to global sea level rise by the year 3000, which would place much of San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans and other coastal cities underwater.
(New research shows an iceless Greenland may be in the future, National Science Foundation)
