The Solar Family:
Let us now take you on a journey across the universe. We begin from our planet EQrth. It is our home. The Earth is active, lush and fertile. It is a place of blue skies, vast *oceans, cool forests, a world full of life. Its surface is cloaked by an atmosphere in which 'we can breathe, and which keeps the Earth's temperature quite-constant. It spins or rotates on its axis and revolves around the Sun, completing one orbit in one year. The Earth is not alone. It has a companion on its travels, the Moon which orbits the Earth once in 27.33 days. But the Moon is airless, waterless and lifeless; it is a dead world. From the Moon, the Earth appears as a beautiful bluish-white planet. The Earth is not the only planet orbiting the Sun. There are eight other planets that orbit the Sun. The nine planets and their satellites togethkr with the Sun and many asteroids and comets make a family, the Solar System. The planets arc diverse in size, ranging from the giant Jupiter, efeven times the size of Earth, down to tiny Pluto, less than half the size of our planet. Each planet's distance from the Sun is different, Mercury being the nearest and Pluto, the farthest. They are all different from each other in many respects. But let's not dwell on the Solar