The Probert Encyclopaedia of Science & Technology

ANOMALY

In astronomy, an anomaly is the angle which a line drawn from a planet to the sun has passed through since the planet was last at its perihelion or nearest distance to the sun. The anomalistic year is the interval between two successive times at which the earth is in perihelion, or 365 days 6 hours 13 minutes 45 seconds. In consequence of the advance of the earth's perihelion among the stars in the same direction as the earth's motion and of the precession of the equinoxes, which carries the equinoxes back in the opposite direction to the earth's motion, the anomalistic year is longer than the sidereal year, and still longer than the tropical or common year.
Research Anomaly