What are our nearest neighbors like?

In our solar system the three bodies that are nearest to us are our own moon and the planets Venus and Mars. The formation, structure, and surface of the moon are more closely linked with earth. Because these planets are so close to us (in terms of size of the solar system) they have been the subject of many sciences of fiction stories. But the question is what these planets are really like? And do they really have strange life forms inhabiting them?

Venus is closer to the sun than the earth, and orbits at a distance of about 110 million kilometers from the sun. Sometimes Venus comes as close as40million kilometers to earth. It does not seem unlikely, but a year on the planet Venus would be shorter than a day. This occurs because the planet is spinning on its own axis more slowly than it’sorbiting around the sun. In the case of earth, of course, it is the other way round so that there are 3651/4 of our days in a year.

Venus is about the same size and weight with the earth but because it is much closer to the sun and does not have our protecting layer of the gas ozone, it is very much hotter. The surface temperature has been estimated at about 350 degrees Celsius, or more than three times the boiling temperature of water. Because of the extreme heat, because there does not seem to be a breathable atmosphere apart from a dense covering of co2 gas, and because there is little evidence of h2o it would be very surprising if there were any life forms like our own.

Mars orbit around the sun at a distance of about 230 million kilometers and is farther away from it than we are.vew of mars at night sky appears to be red in color. This reddish color seems to be the actual color of the planet’s surface because it is only protected by a thin atmosphere of co2.

The surface of mars is certainly cratered rather like our moon and also appears to have a canal-like scars running across it. It would bevery unlikely that any life as we know could survive there because of the lack of water and free oxygen, and because the temperature may fall low enough during the night to freeze any normal living creature. You can see, then that earth is very lucky to have conditions which will support a network of plant and animal life.