orrery

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a mechanical model that shows the relative positions and movements of bodies in the solar system

   The museum's brass orrery demonstrates how Earth and the other planets orbit the Sun.

Named for Charles Boyle, fourth Earl of Orrery, for whom the instrument maker John Rowley built such a model in the early eighteenth century. The title Orrery ultimately derives from an Irish place and territorial name.

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