ecliptic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Ulysses mission, launched in 1990, was the first spacecraft to leave the ecliptic plane and sample the solar wind over the poles.
From Science Daily • Oct. 14, 2025
All the planets orbit roughly along the same plane, known as an ecliptic plane, or arc across the sky if you are viewing it edge-on, according to NASA.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2025
Conjunctions occur frequently in our solar system because "the planets orbit around the Sun in approximately the same plane - the ecliptic plane - and thus trace similar paths across our sky", according to Nasa.
From BBC • Feb. 28, 2023
As the moon orbits Earth every 29 days, it makes a big circle around the sky, crossing the ecliptic twice.
From Scientific American • Nov. 30, 2022
The planet has a few degrees of tilt to the plane of the ecliptic, not enough to make an appreciable seasonal difference in low latitudes.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
