ecliptic
1
8.7
- adjective
- /ɪˈklɪptɪk/
- Specialized
- Astronomers often study ecliptic objects to understand the movement of celestial bodies in our solar system.
- ecliptic plane
Examples
-
Subject to change as circumstances warrant, the mother ship and escort will take an ecliptic orbit around the sun at approximately three-fourths of an astronomical unit.
Fiction book (2001) -
All three craft were, more or less, in the ecliptic plane of Earth's orbit.
Academic text (2006) -
The geocentric solar-ecliptic x, y, z coordinates are the same as in Figure 2.
Academic text (2006) -
The most striking result of the reconstruction is the inferred length of the X-line, far north of the ecliptic plane, where the bifurcated current sheet joins up and the magnetic reconnection is actually taking place.
Academic text (2006) -
After all, there is a whole class of eccentrically orbiting exoplanets, including one of those orbiting Upsilon Andromedae, which is tilted way out of the ecliptic plane for that system.
Blog text (30) -
The positions of planets can be mapped along the ecliptic, which is essential for tracking their orbits.
-
In ancient times, the ecliptic was important for predicting seasonal changes based on the sun's apparent path.
Surface Forms
Morphology
ecliptic = eclipse (opaque) = eclipt + ic
Although related to 'eclipse' historically, the adjectival meaning 'relating to the ecliptic (the sun's path)' is not transparently derived from 'eclipse' for average learners.
Etymology
Ecliptic as an adjective comes from the same root as eclipse, which in Greek meant 'to leave' or 'be absent' since an eclipse makes light vanish. So calling something 'ecliptic' means it relates to the sun's path across the sky, the line where eclipses can occur.