Chapter 1 StArS And PlAnEtS The sky is filled with stars On a clear night you may be able to see lots of them Planets travel around some of those stars But you cannot see the planets Unlike stars planets do not give off their own light This night sky is filled with planets and stars You can see the stars but not the planets Do you know why 4
A planet is a round object in space that travels around a star Earth is a planet The star that Earth travels around is the Sun Seven other planets travel around the Sun too This is what Earth looks like from space Clouds swirl around Africa and Antarctica in this image 5
The Sun and its planets are called the solar system Planets that travel around other stars are not in our solar system These planets are called exoplanets They are very far from Earth This illustration shows the Sun its planets and other objects in space 6
Finding Exoplanets Astronomers are scientists who study space For a long time they thought exoplanets existed But they had no proof Astronomers use giant telescopes to search space for exoplanets 7
