What does the phrase "limb of the earth" or "atmospheric limb" mean? What does the term limb of the earth (see this question, for example) or atmospheric limb mean? The phrase strikes me as very odd, since earth is nearly spherical. Do other planets with atmospheres also have a limb?
 A: The limb of the Earth is simply the horizon, or the edge of the Earth at the horizon, especially if you see it from a spacecraft. When you also explicitly see the thin layer near the horizon corresponding to the atmosphere, it's the atmospheric limb.
There's no problem with the Earth's being spherical because the spherical symmetry is respected by both phrases containing "limb". On the other hand, the "limbs" are limb-like because in the one-dimensional model of the Earth where the altitude is the only coordinate, the limb (in both senses) is at the end point, much like hands and feet are "end points of a body".
A: The etymology of limb for an astral object comes from the original Latin root. Limbus means border in Latin, a language in which all good students  of last centuries were proficient, including  astronomers; when  describing heavenly bodies viewed through the telescopes they shortened it to limb.


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*(astronomy) The apparent visual edge of a celestial body.

*(on a measuring instrument) The graduated edge of a circle or arc


Now limb as an appendage of a body or tree has a different etymology in English. It comes from Middle English lim and acquired the "b" later.
