There's a big misconception regarding the origin of light seen from planets and moons. For example, when you look at the sky when the Moon is up, you see light. If it's a full Moon, you see the Moon as being very bright. But it's important to understand that this light is not the Moon's light. The Moon produces no visible light. The reason we see the Moon is due to sunlight. Sunlight strikes the surface of the Moon and reflects back to the Earth. This is why we see the Moon in the sky.
The same is true for the naked eye planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter) and all other telescope necessary planets, regardless if they are in our Solar System or not. We see these planets because we are seeing the sunlight reflected off of them. These planets do emit infrared light (especially Jupiter and Saturn) that can be viewed by an infrared telescope, but our eyes cannot detect this light.
Remember, knowledge is power so pass it along to your kids!
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