Gail Miller, age 13, of Salt Lake City,Utah  For her question:

Does the earth shine like a star?

A star shines by the radiance of its own light and can be seen across millions of miles of space. The earth and the planets shine only by reflecting light from our blazing sun. Only the daylight side shines out into space.

The daytime side of our beautiful world can be seen from perhaps five of our sister planets and from many of their satellites. Some of these heavenly bodies see the daylight creep over the earth, making phases like those of the moon.