what do we call the paths that the planets travel on around the sun

The path that planets follow around the Sun is called an orbit. An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object takes around another object or center of gravity. The planets in our solar system move around the Sun in elliptical orbits, with the Sun being at rest at one focus of the orbit. The shape of the path is an ellipse, with the Sun at the focus. Due to the inverse-square rule of gravity, the speed of movement is greater in orbits closer to the Sun, slower for more distant orbits.