Here's a breakdown of what that means:

* Orbit: Earth travels around the Sun in a near-circular path.

* Plane: Imagine a flat, invisible surface that cuts through the center of the Sun and Earth's orbit. That surface is the ecliptic plane.

* Ecliptic: The path that the Sun appears to take across the sky throughout the year as seen from Earth. This path is determined by Earth's orbit around the Sun.

Essentially, the ecliptic plane is the flat surface that contains both the Sun and Earth's orbital path.