The Planet Quiz Show

The planets in our solar system shine by reflecting the light that they receive from the sun back into our eyes. The sun is a star. Stars make their own light by converting hydrogen into helium within their cores. This releases the energy that we see coming from stars. Planets are round. They orbit stars and are not satellites of another planet. Planets are massive enough to have sufficient gravity to clear their orbital paths of debris.

Sunlight causes all other objects in our solar system to shine. In this picture we are pretending that we are in space looking through one of the windows of our spacecraft. We are close to the Moon. That is why it looks so big. In the background is the Earth with its shadow behind it. In front of the Earth is the sun. Light from the sun reflects off the Earth and the moon making them shine. When the moon goes behind the Earth, it sometimes hides in the Earth’s shadow creating a lunar eclipse.