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See more kids' drawings...
Our solar system may seem big to us. But it is only a tiny part of a huge galaxy - the Milky Way. The Milky Way Galaxy is a tiny part of the universe. How tiny? Check this out.
WHAT'S BEYOND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM?
There are lots of stars like our Sun. They are all so far away they look like tiny points of light -- the stars you see when you look up into the sky at night. Some are bigger. Some are smaller. Some are hotter. Some are colder. Some even have planets in orbit around them.
Could there be another planet like Earth? Planet hunters are looking with powerful tools like the Hubble Space Telescope. So far they have discovered giant planets that are similar to Jupiter, but nothing like our home planet. It is very hard to spot a planet the size of Earth so far away.
Four American spacecraft are headed out of our solar system to what scientists call interstellar space. Voyager 1 is the farthest out - more than 7.5 billion miles (12 billion km) from Earth. It will be the first manmade object to leave our solar system.
Want to learn more? Explore the galaxy and beyond at the Planet Quest website.
 | BEYOND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM CHALLENGE
Do you think there are more planets like Earth out there? How would you find them? Are your ideas close to the real ways astronomers hunt planets? |
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Missions to Beyond Our Solar System
Featured Mission: Voyager 1
It will take Voyager 1 almost 40,000 years to pass by a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis.
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