Word.ws English Dictionary

McDowell Line

McDowell Line is the alternative form of McDowell line.

Noun capitalized: McDowell line

McDowell line

  1. The altitude of periapsis at which atmospheric drag will prevent an object from successfully orbiting.

Forms of McDowell Line

alternative formMcDowell Line
alternative formMcDowell Limit
alternative formMcDowell limit

Origin of McDowell Line

Proposed by astrophysicist Jonathan C. McDowell in 2018; when analyzing orbiting satellites to determine the perigee altitude at which one can successfully orbit twice or more on a highly elliptical orbit.

Questions about McDowell Line

What does McDowell Line mean?
McDowell Line means the altitude of periapsis at which atmospheric drag will prevent an object from successfully orbiting.
What is McDowell Line the alternative form of?
McDowell Line is the alternative form of McDowell line.
What part of speech is McDowell Line?
McDowell Line is a noun.

Words near McDowell Line in the dictionary

  1. McDougles
  2. McDow
  3. McDowell
  4. McDowell County
  5. McDowell Limit
  6. McDowell Line
  7. McDowellian
  8. McDowells
  9. McDows
  10. McDrai
  11. MCDs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: McDowell Line (page history and authors); McDowell line (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “McDowell Line.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mcdowell_line. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.