Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. The ecliptic plane is defined as the imaginary plane containing the Earth's orbit around the Sun. In the course of a year, the Sun's apparent path through the sky lies in this plane. The planetary bodies of our solar system all tend to lie near this plane, since they were formed from the Sun's spinning, flattened, proto-planetary disk . The snapshot above nicely captures a momentary line-up looking out along this fundamental plane of our solar system.
Specific rights apply.