The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft returns first-ever data of the Sun collected from a 17-degree tilted orbit.

We're only seeing its equator, because, like every planet in the solar system, the Earth is locked into the same unchanging orbit, known as the ecliptic plane, around the star.

For folks in the United States, July evenings mean 4th of July fireworks. While you're waiting for the show, be sure to watch ...

The arc alignment is no coincidence, because all planets orbit the sun in roughly the same plane, like a disc, known as the ecliptic or ecliptic plane.

Bluish-white Regulus in Leo is moving toward the western horizon and sets around 10 p.m. in mid-July, followed a couple of ...

Solar systems mostly keep to themselves. What’s ours is ours and what’s not is not. Stars are simply too far from each ...

What at first seemed a routine detection of an object travelling through the solar system soon turned out to be anything but.

Solar System Planets. Astronomy articles on the eight planets, plus the two dwarf planets, Pluto and Eris. Great pictures of everything in the solar system. Updated daily.

Escaping the ecliptic plane takes some doing, by which I mean a lot of very expensive rocket fuel. The Solar Orbiter used Venus's gravity to help pull it out of the usual equatorial orbit around ...