Nutation

Nutation (from Latin: nūtāre, to nod) is a rocking, swaying, or nodding motion in the axis of rotation of a largely axially symmetric object, such as a gyroscope, planet, or bullet in flight, or as an intended behavior of a mechanism. A pure nutation is a movement of a rotational axis such that the first Euler angle (precession) is constant. In spacecraft dynamics, precession is sometimes referred to as nutation.