home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
WordWorth | 1994-03-10 | 2.4 KB | 12 lines |
- Unlike the stars, which shine with their own light, the planets of our solar
- system can only be seen because they reflect the light of the sun. As they are
- much closer than the stars, we can follow their shine across the sky.
- The brightest object in the sky, apart from the sun and the moon, is venus. It
- is about the size of the Earth, with an atmosphere of brilliant white clouds,
- which prevents its surface from being seen clearly.
- Saturn, the second largest planet (about 119,000 km in diameter), is the most
- extraordinary of the planets because it is surrounded by a system of rings. For
- a long time the rings puzzled astronomers, but they are now known to consist of
- millions of separate solid particles.
-
-