How does Kepler's first law describe the paths of planets around the Sun?

Kepler’s first law of planetary motion states that all planets move about the Sun in elliptical orbits, with the Sun located at one of the two foci of the ellipse.123

This discovery, published by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1609, was a significant departure from earlier models that assumed planetary paths were circular. By analyzing the precise observational data of Tycho Brahe, Kepler determined that the orbits of planets like Mars deviated from circularity, leading him to define these paths as ellipses.23