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In astronomy, an "anomaly" originally referred to the irregular movements of planets. Today, it describes a planet's, satellite's, or star's position within its orbit around a central mass. There are three types: true anomaly, mean anomaly, and eccentric anomaly.1

The true anomaly (V) is the angle between the line from the central mass to the orbiting body and the line to its perihelion (closest point to the central mass). Johannes Kepler's laws of planetary motion, derived from precise observations, describe orbits as ellipses with the Sun at one focus. Kepler's second law states that a line from the Sun to a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times, meaning planets move faster near perihelion and slower near aphelion (farthest point).12

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