THE EARTH AS A PLANET 5 



from the distance of one of the stars, would appear like 

 a star. 



The list of the planets in the order of distance from the 

 sun is : Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, 

 Uranus, and Neptune. The sun, with the bodies revolv- 

 ing about it, is called the solar system. There is reason to 

 believe that ours is only one of many similar solar systems 

 that exist throughout space. 



HALLEY'S COMET. 



One of the most famous visitors from outer space. The small white dots 

 are stars seen through the tail. 



The planets are by far the nearest of all the starlike 

 bodies, although the distance from the sun to the farthest 

 of the planets is some 2700 million miles greater than the 

 distance from the earth to the sun. The distance of 

 the nearest of the stars however, is probably about 

 25,000,000,000,000 miles. This distance is so great that 

 it takes light, which travels at the inconceivable rate of 

 186,000 miles in a second of time, over four and a half 

 years to come to us from this star. From Arcturus, 



