Kepler's First Law of Motion states that the orbits of planets around the Sun are elliptical in shape. This means that the path traced by a planet as it travels around the Sun is in the shape of an ellipse, which is an elongated circle. An ellipse has two foci, and in the case of planetary orbits, the Sun is located at one of these foci.
This law was a significant advancement in understanding celestial mechanics, indicating that the orbits are not perfect circles as previously thought, but rather ellipses that vary in their degree of elongation. The shape of the ellipse can be described by its major and minor axes, with the eccentricity determining how stretched out it is.
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