ECLIPTIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ecliptic mean? 

• ECLIPTIC (noun)
  The noun ECLIPTIC has 1 sense:

1. the great circle representing the apparent annual path of the sun; the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun; makes an angle of about 23 degrees with the equator

  Familiarity information: ECLIPTIC used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ECLIPTIC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The great circle representing the apparent annual path of the sun; the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun; makes an angle of about 23 degrees with the equator

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Context example:

all of the planets rotate the sun in approximately the same ecliptic

Hypernyms ("ecliptic" is a kind of...):

great circle (a circular line on the surface of a sphere formed by intersecting it with a plane passing through the center)

 Context examples 

After the fix, Kepler started its K2 mission, which has provided an ecliptic field of view with greater opportunities for Earth-based observatories in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

(Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission, NASA)

On Sept. 2, the small body crossed under the ecliptic plane just inside of Mercury's orbit and then made its closest approach to the Sun on Sept. 9.

(Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System, NASA)

On Oct. 26, it will pass through the ecliptic plane - the plane in which Earth and the other planets orbit the Sun - from above at roughly a 40-degree angle.

(Newly Discovered Comet Is Likely Interstellar Visitor, NASA)

The angle between the planes of the celestial equator and the ecliptic, currently the earth has a 23.4 degree obliquity cycle.

(Obliquity, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

Either of two points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic; either of the two times each year when the sun crosses the equator, and day and night are of equal length (spring equinox, fall equinox).

(Equinox, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

It was after tea on a summer evening, and the conversation, which had roamed in a desultory, spasmodic fashion from golf clubs to the causes of the change in the obliquity of the ecliptic, came round at last to the question of atavism and hereditary aptitudes.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The object approached our solar system from almost directly above the ecliptic, the approximate plane in space where the planets and most asteroids orbit the Sun, so it did not have any close encounters with the eight major planets during its plunge toward the Sun.

(Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System, NASA)