heliocentric
adjective
he·lio·cen·tric
| \ ˌhē-lē-ō-ˈsen-trik
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Definition of heliocentric
1
: referred to or measured from the sun's center or appearing as if seen from it
2
: having or relating to the sun as center — compare geocentric
Examples of heliocentric in a Sentence
Galileo proposed the heliocentric theory that the Earth goes around the sun.
Recent Examples on the Web
He's lionized for advocating a heliocentric view of our solar system, spurning Church doctrine and becoming a heretic. — Sam Blum, Popular Mechanics, "Newfound Galileo Letter Suggests He Lied to Dupe the Church and Avoid Persecution," 25 Sep. 2018 The Helios 2 set the heliocentric speed record at 153,454 miles per hour. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "NASA Probe Gets Closer to Sun Than Any Human-Made Object in History," 30 Oct. 2018 Mission managers will now send a command to the spacecraft, which is presently trailing Earth in a heliocentric orbit about 150 million kilometers away, to turn off the spacecraft's transmitters. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "NASA is about to turn off the Kepler spacecraft, and it will drift away," 30 Oct. 2018 Thus a heliocentric solar system might well have been a constant of astronomical thought from Babylon and classical Greece onwards. — The Economist, "Empty sky, empty Earth?," 5 July 2018 The second stage of the rocket will conduct a total of three engine burns to send the car to a heliocentric orbit around the sun. — Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, "Falcon Heavy Launches to Become the Most Powerful Rocket in the World," 6 Feb. 2018 After orbiting the Earth for 6 hours, a third-stage burn-to-depletion was completed at approximately 02:30 UTC Feb 7, placing the dummy payload in a heliocentric orbit having a perihelion of 0.99 au and aphelion ~1.7 au. — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "We Know Exactly Where Musk’s Space Tesla Is Going," 8 Feb. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'heliocentric.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for heliocentric
heliocentric
adjective
English Language Learners Definition of heliocentric
: having or relating to the sun as the center
See the full definition for heliocentric in the English Language Learners Dictionary