galactic plane

American

noun

Astronomy.

the plane of the galactic equator.

galactic plane British

noun

the plane passing through the spiral arms of the Galaxy

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of galactic plane

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

galactic plane

The right panel shows a side view, cutting vertically through the galactic plane.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2025

But because the signals emanate from the crowded galactic plane, optical telescopes could not see which of many stars might be producing them.

From Science Magazine ● Dec. 3, 2024

We found, surprisingly, a distribution of filaments parallel to the galactic plane.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 22, 2023

Astronomers have detected a new set of whiskers on the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy: filaments of radio energy a few light-years long, and streaming outward along the galactic plane.

From New York Times ● Jun. 8, 2023

If we could follow the motion of individual stars bobbing about the galactic plane, they would resemble a froth of popcorn.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023