On Earth, since we have an atmosphere that diffuses sunlight, we have twilight, the time in between day and night.

Scientists have been trying to devise ways of slowing down or stopping global warming. This concept is called geoengineering. The ideas range from great to idiotic, according to Simon Worden, head of NASA’s Ames Research Center. They are all last chance efforts to deal with global warming.

Earth’s moon hasn’t changed much for over a billion years when it was volcanically active. Small changes on the surface occur with the constant rain of micrometeorites, a larger impact once in awhile, minor seismic events (moonquakes), and spacecraft visits. During the Leonid meteor shower on November 17, 2006, two tennis-ball size meteoroids were documented hitting the moon at a speed of about 144,000 miles per hour.

Earth continues to move out of its last ice age. Global warming caused by humans is helping speed up the destruction of the last of the telltale signs of the ice age – the glaciers. Scientists believe the mountain glaciers in the Alps in Europe will completely disappear by 2050, most by 2037.

James Eisner at Florida State University has been studying hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean over the past fifty years. He has discovered a direct link between Earth’s changing climate, or global warming, and hurricane intensity.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences researchers reported the global temperature of Earth has reached a high point not seen in thousands of years. It’s been warming at a rate of .36 ° Fahrenheit per decade for the past 30 years. The current global temperature is the warmest of the interglacial period that started about 12,000 years ago. The warming has been stronger in the far north.

Distant objects beyond our solar system affect Earth everyday. Fortunately, most of those effects aren’t noticeable. In our solar system, there are noticeable effects from the sun and the moon. Light and heat from the sun can be seen and felt. The sun’s gravity keeps Earth in its orbit. The sun’s gravity also affects the tides. The moon’s orbit affects Earth’s rate of spin and its gravity affects tides.