Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research the clouds and winds of Venus. Microwave instruments determine the composition of atmospheres while infrared spectrometers examine surface rocks. A novel laser altimeter on board BepiColumbo will survey the topography of Mercury to within a meter. Further MPS instruments identify the atoms, electrons, and dust that move around the planets and impact their moons. Here the influence of the solar wind on the atmospheric gases is of particular interest. Theoretical studies and intensive computer simulations help to understand the processes both inside and surrounding the planets and to interpret the measured data. Models developed at MPS can describe, for example,
Solar eclipses on the Moon Earth rotates nearly 24 hours, but its position at the sky is only in one position as it never changes as it does with some other moons (or satellites) in other planets or dwarf planets and a few asteroids even inside the solar system but are very rare in the outer part of the solar system. The last solar eclipse on the Moon was a total eclipse on July 27, 2018, with the whole Nearside and the tiny surroundings of the Farside seeing totality. Unlike the Earth which sees its eclipse for up to 2 1/2 hours the longest in