One one of the four clear-cut shapes that are the intersections of a cone possessing a plane: The conic sections are the circle, the ellipse, the hyperbola, and the parabola.

Mathematically, the geometric shapes are obtained by slicing a cone at different angles relative to the base of the cone.

A circle is formed by slicing the cone parallel to its base, an ellipse by slicing at any angle less than that of the side of the cone relative to the base, and a parabola by slicing parallel to the side of the cone.

A hyperbola is formed by cutting the cone at an angle steeper than that of the side. To a good approximation, all celestial bodies within the solar system follow orbits which can be represented by conic sections.