Is there a formal name for the shortest (directed) line segment connecting two skew lines? I don't believe the dimension of the space matters so long as it is greater than 2. But I am specifically interested in the case of Euclidean 3-space.
I call this the impact vector, which I borrowed from the notion of an impact parameter used in astronomy to quantify the shortest distance between bodies. For example, how close an asteroid comes when passing Earth. I call the associated directed line segment (with an arbitrarily designated tail) the impact vector.
Is there a mathematically proper term for this?