The light emitted by the Sun reaches all the planets of the solar system. To verify this, just look at the stars at night.
Many of them are as bright luminaries (and some even brighter), like our Sun. But they are so far from us that their light is not able to well illuminate our planet.
What does the sun look like?
From Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, the Sun looks like a huge blinding ball: its diameter is three times the diameter of “our” Sun (which we see from planet Earth). In the afternoon, the surface of Mercury is flooded with very bright light, and the sky remains black and stars are visible, because there is no atmosphere on Mercury that would reflect and scatter sunlight. When the light of the Sun falls on the lifeless cliffs of Mercury, their temperature rises to 430 degrees Celsius. At night, this heat quickly dissipates in space and the temperature of the same rocks drops to minus 170 degrees Celsius.
Sun on Venus
Venus, the second planet after Mercury, is surrounded by an atmosphere that consists mainly of carbon dioxide. In this atmosphere, fetid clouds of sulfuric acid vapor are weighed and moved. These clouds are very dense, so it is always cloudy on Venus. Although Venus is farther from the Sun than Mercury, the temperature on its surface is sometimes higher. Why? The greenhouse effect is working.A layer of carbon dioxide retains heat on the surface of the planet, as the glass of a greenhouse prevents heat from leaving the greenhouse. Therefore, the temperature on the surface of Venus reaches 480 degrees Celsius.
Interesting fact: although Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, the sky there is black even during the day and stars are always visible, because there is no atmosphere on Mercury.
Sun on Mars
After Earth, the third planet, Mars follows. The diameter of the Martian Sun is two-thirds of the earth. It gives only one third of light in comparison with the light of the Sun on Earth. This weaker light must still pass through the dusty layer in the red sky of Mars. In the sky of Mars there is always a lot of dust raised by Martian storms from the red soil of the planet. However, on calm days in summer, the temperature during the day can reach quite comfortable 17 degrees Celsius. In short, the weather on Mars may be quite acceptable.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the Sun
Beyond Mars are giant planets, huge gas balls Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. All of them are constantly shrouded in thick clouds. From all these four outposts of our solar system, the Sun seems to be a small, rather dull disk. On Jupiter, the disk of the Sun looks five times smaller than from Earth.
Jupiter receives 25 times less light and heat than Earth. From the surface of the clouds of Jupiter we will see a small dim Sun. And what's under the clouds? Scientists believe that the surface of Jupiter is covered with liquid, similar to molten metal with hydrogen. Eternal darkness reigns on the surface of the hydrogen ocean under dense clouds.Occasionally a gloomy landscape is illuminated by gigantic flashes of lightning.
Naturally, there is even less light on Saturn than on Jupiter. True, it is enough to illuminate the famous rings surrounding the planet. Thousands of Saturn's rings are made up mostly of ice. Sunlight falling on them turns ice circles into sparkling crowns. Depending on the orientation of Saturn with respect to the Sun, rings can cast a shadow on the surface of the planet, thickening the already covering darkness. Imagine similar rings near the Earth, which cover South America, South Africa and Australia with a dense shadow, and you will understand what is at stake.
And finally, from the icy, dark, terribly far from the Sun of Pluto, our luminary looks like a very bright star in a black horizon, its light is cold. It is 5.8 billion kilometers away from the planet. If you do not know that this is the native luminary of Pluto, then there are no signs by which one could guess about it.
