Illustration of an exaggerated Earth seen from the surface of the Moon. The Sun is behind us and below the horizon, so the Earth is seen in gibbous phase, its blue light providing the illumination for the scene. No stars are seen here - they are wash...

Artwork of the Solar System, showing the paths of the eight major planets as they orbit the Sun, as well as Pluto and Eris, which are dwarf planets. The four inner planets are, from inner to outer, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The four outer plane...

Planet Earth but not as we know it. The tectonic plates have arranged themselves to create a single land-mass, a supercontinent called Rodinia (from the Russian for 'Motherland'. It is one of many that Earth has seen in its history. It was fully form...

An impression of the Red Planet, Mars, second smallest in the Solar System (after Mercury)....

Artwork of the early Moon seen from a young planet Earth. The scene depicts a time period a few hundred million years after the Moon first formed. It was much closer to the Earth then, and continues to move away at a rate of 2-3cm per year. The Earth...

The Earth-Moon system, seen from a vantage point beyond the Moon. This side of the Moon is never seen from the Earth, because of synchronous rotation. This means that the Moon rotates on its axis once a month, exactly the same as its period of revolu...

This is an illustration of a space elevator - a type of transportation system designed to move payloads from the Earth's surface into orbit. The idea was proposed in 1885 by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. A cable extends from a base statio...

An asteroid approaches the Earth. Near-Earth asteroids are a constant threat to our planet....

Rings of Uranus. Artwork of particles making up one of the rings of Uranus. The rings of Uranus are very dark and not visible from Earth. There are eleven small rings in total, and they are only a few kilometres wide, and no more that a couple of hun...