Venus, which have orbits that are smaller than the Earth's, exhibit the full range of phases as does the Moon, when seen through a telescope. Its phases are "full" when they are at superior conjunction, on the far side of the Sun as seen from the Earth.
Venus is so bright because its thick clouds reflect most of the sunlight that reaches it (about 70%) back into space, and because it is the closest planet to Earth. Venus can often be seen within a few hours after sunset or before sunrise as the brightest object in the sky (other than the moon).
A pulsar is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. This radiation can be observed only when the beam of emission is pointing toward Earth, and is responsible for the pulsed appearance of emission.
The lunar maria are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. They were dubbed maria, latin for "seas", by early astronomers who mistook them for actual seas.
The fact that the outermost region of the sun's atmosphere is at millions of degrees while the temperature of the underlying photosphere is only 6,000 kelvins (degrees C. above absolute zero) is quite nonintuitive.
A meteor is an asteroid or other object that burns and vaporizes upon entry into the Earth's atmosphere; meteors are commonly known as "shooting stars." If a meteor survives the plunge through the atmosphere and lands on the surface, it's known as a meteorite.
Being nearest to Sun,its path around Sun is smallest. Hence its one year is equal to 88 days. 59 days spent on Earth are equivalent to 1 day spent on Mercury as days there bigger than the days on earth.