There are eight planets besides Earth in the Sun ' family. The world "planet" means "wanderer." Planets look to people like stars but they are really very different. Stars are very very hot. They shine with their own light. Planets do not shine with their own light. They shine only because the sun is shining on them.
Moonlight , as most people know, is secondhand sunlight . The Moon merely reflects the light that shines on it from the Sun. The light from planets is the secondhand sunlight, too.
Of the eight other planets, only five can be seen with the naked eye. People of ancient times knew of only five "wandering stars". The others planets were not discovered until over the telescopes were invented. The planets that are visible without telescopes are MERCURY, VENUS, MARS, JUPITER AND SATURN. The other are Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
Each planets moves with a speed that just balance the pull of the Sun. Many planets have moons that travel around them as they travel around the sun. Earth has one moon. Mercury, Venus and Pluto have none. Jupiter has twelve moons. Saturn has nine , Uranus has five, Mars and Neptune have two.
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