a person or thing that retracts. Anatomy. a muscle that retracts an organ or protruded part. Surgery. an instrument or appliance for drawing back an impeding part, as the edge of an incision. a mechanism, device, or the like that regulates retraction: to adjust the retractor on a seat belt.
The Moon orbits Earth in the prograde direction and completes one revolution relative to the stars in approximately 27.323 days (a sidereal month). Earth and the Moon orbit about their barycentre (common center of mass), which lies about 4,600 km (2,900 mi) from Earth's center (about 34 of the radius of Earth).
It takes the moon 29.5 days to go through all phases, from full moon, back to full moon for example. Relative to the background stars and ignoring the earth position relative â¦ to our sun, the moon takes 27 days 7 hours and 43 minutes to orbit the earth-the sidereal orbit.he lunar cycle requires about 29 1/2 days (29.531 days). This is longer than the actual time it takes to orbit the Earth and to make a complete rotation (which are the same time).