From Cubic Path

The zodiacal band is a region of space extending 16º to the North and 16º to the South of the ecliptic. Because the ecliptic is defined by the path of the sun against the background of relatively fixed stars due to the Earth's revolution, the Sun is always exactly on the ecliptic; this is not the case with the other planets because they do not revolve in precisely the same plane. The paths of the planets are all contained within the zodiacal band, however. The distance of a planet from the ecliptic is called its ecliptic latitude.