An orbit is the curved path that one object in space follows around another, like a planet around the sun. It can also mean the area of activity that something moves within.
From Latin “orbita” meaning “track, course, rut,” related to “orbis” meaning “circle, disk.” It shifted from wheel tracks in the ground to the paths of planets in space.
The first ‘orbits’ were literally ruts worn into the earth by wagon wheels, not space paths. Astronomers borrowed the word to explain that planets aren’t wandering randomly—they’re stuck in invisible grooves carved by gravity.
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