perturbation, in astronomy, deviation in the motion of a celestial object caused either by the gravitational force of a passing object or by a collision with it. For example, predicting the Earth’s orbit around the Sun would be rather straightforward were it not for the slight perturbations in its orbital motion caused by the gravitational influence of the other planets. The search for an eighth planet, which culminated in the discovery of Neptune, was undertaken in part because some astronomers believed that the orbit of Uranus was being gravitationally perturbed by some object beyond it.