Personification is treating a nonperson as if a person, as when referring to a country or boat as a 'she'. Personification is quite common in science writing. Sometimes this is limited to no more that referring to an 'it' as he (e.g., the Sun) or she (e.g., the Moon), but sometimes anthropomorphic metaphors are used (suggesting the object acts or perceives or feels as a person).
Read about personification in science
In particular, there is a long tradition of referring to nature as as if a female person, and another page offers access to some of those examples (some now quite historical, but some more contemporary).
Read examples of nature personified
Some other examples of personification (of heavenly bodies, of elements, etc.) are abstracted on this page:
heavenly bodies
Earth: ♀- her, herself
- she knows and is practised in the whole of geometry (Johannes Kepler)
Jupiter: ♂ – his
Mars: ♂ – his
Mercury: ♂ – his
Moon: ♀ – she
- she alone of all the planets refers her revelations to the centre of the earth (Nicolaus Copernicus)
- she refused to be bridled by the numbers of any astronomer (Edmund Halley)
Saturn: ♂ – whose
Sun: ♂ – himself
- Sun commands things to tend towards himself (Edmund Halley)
