the plane of earth's orbit is called the
Ecliptic
short
ecliptic
The ecliptic is the circular path on the celestial sphere that the Sun appears to follow over the course of a year ; it is the basis of the ecliptic coordinate system . The term also refers to the plane of this path , which is coplanar with Earth 's orbit around the Sun ( and hence the Sun 's apparent orbit around Earth ) . The ecliptic is not normally noticeable from Earth 's surface because Earth rotates , carrying the observer through the cycles of sunrise and sunset , which obscure the Sun 's apparent motion against the background of fixed stars .