What is ecliptic?

The Ecliptic is the path that the Sun takes through the sky during the year.

Imagine you're playing on a merry-go-round, it spins around in a circle. Now, think of Earth as that merry-go-round, and the Sun as your friend riding with you. As Earth spins around the Sun, your friend (the Sun) seems to move across the sky, following a special path called the Ecliptic.

The Ecliptic is like a train track in the sky. The Sun travels along this track, and it’s how we get our seasons, when Earth is closer or farther from the Sun on its journey. Just as your favorite toy train follows the tracks around the room, the Sun follows the Ecliptic across the sky.

Other planets also travel near this path too! So when you look up at night and see a bright object moving across the sky, it might be another planet following the same Ecliptic track as the Sun. It’s like all your friends on the merry-go-round, each taking their own little ride but following the same big circle.