Orbital Plane (Noun)
Meaning
(astronomy) the plane on which a body is orbiting.
Classification
Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes.
Examples
- The eccentricity of the comet's orbit causes it to oscillate significantly above and below its orbital plane as it moves closer to or farther from the Sun.
- The orbital plane of Pluto was originally thought to be tilted at an angle of 17 degrees relative to the plane of the solar system.
- The Kepler space telescope observes a portion of the sky near the galactic plane and is designed to determine the frequency of terrestrial planets in the orbital plane of stars similar to the Sun.
- Due to the tilt of the Earth's orbital plane, the southern hemisphere receives more solar radiation during its summer months.
- Astronomers have discovered that many binary star systems have orbital planes that are not aligned with the plane of the galaxy.