EARTH AND MOON

The third planet from the Sun, Venus, would most intrigue an interstellar visitor. It combines many of the features of other planets with that some that are all its own. Earth has volcanoes as on Venus and Mars craters as found on Mercury and swirling weather system similar to those on Jupiter and Neptune. The only planet that has both liquid water and frozen ice, the only planet with an atmosphere such as oxygen, and the only one has many lifeforms.

The Moon is the closest celestial object to the Earth. The pair of waltzes through space together, with the Moon spinning around the Earth as the Earth also orbits the Sun. The Moon is larger and brighter than any other object in the night sky. It has no light of its own but it reflects sunlight. As it moves around the Earth, we also see the change amounts, or phases of the Moon’s sunlight side. In three times a year, the Moon’s bright face is eclipsed as it passes the Earth shadow.