File:Plane of Ecliptic.jpg

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Summary

DescriptionPlane of Ecliptic.jpg	English: The Plane of Ecliptic is illustrated in this Clementine star tracker camera image which reveals (from right to left) the Moon lit by Earthshine, the Sun's corona rising over the Moon's dark limb, and the planets Saturn, Mars, and Mercury. The ecliptic plane is defined as the imaginary plane containing the Earth's orbit around the Sun. In the course of a year, the Sun's apparent path through the sky lies in this plane. The planetary bodies of our solar system all tend to lie near this plane, since they were formed from the Sun's spinning, flattened, proto-planetary disk. The snapshot above nicely captures a momentary line-up looking out along this fundamental plane of our solar system.
Source	http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap960921.html http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/Ecliptic.jpg
Author	The Clementine Project, commissioned by NASA

Licensing

	This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
	Warnings: Use of NASA logos, insignia and emblems is restricted per U.S. law 14 CFR 1221. The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the Soviet/Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain. Materials based on Hubble Space Telescope data may be copyrighted if they are not explicitly produced by the STScI.[1] See also {{PD-Hubble}} and {{Cc-Hubble}}. The SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use. [2] Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted. [3] The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) site has been known to host copyrighted content. Its photo gallery FAQ states that all of the images in the photo gallery are in the public domain "Unless otherwise noted."

File history

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	Date/Time	Dimensions	User	Comment
current	06:59, 14 May 2015	640 × 449 (227 KB)	Jcpag2012	converted from GIF file with 100% quality using GIMP
	08:40, 28 July 2006	640 × 449 (197 KB)	Conscious	Reverted to earlier revision
	08:40, 28 July 2006	751 × 528 (58 KB)	Conscious	Adrian Pingstone's version from http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001014.html
	05:33, 30 July 2005	640 × 449 (197 KB)	RHorning	{{PD-USGov-NASA}} Courtesy NASA Original source: http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=1444 Source caption: '''The Plane of the Ecliptic'''<br> The Plane of the Ecliptic is illustrated in this Clementine star tracker camera image which