Solar System Exploration: Kids: EXTREME Space

There are worlds out there cold enough to instantly freeze an explorer into a human popsicle. And others hot enough to boil a person into a wisp of steam in seconds flat. There's also poisonous air, steel-crushing atmospheric pressure and winds that make Earth's most intense tornados seem tame. Pick a planet and read on to find out more amazing facts about our extreme solar system.

Don't Wait Up
Even though it is speeding along at more than 60,000 kph (39,000 mph), it will take Voyager 2 more than 296,000 years to pass Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky.

Plethora of Planets
Before 1994, only the nine planets of our solar system were known to exist. Today scientists have discovered more than 100 worlds orbiting distance stars - and that's just the big ones. Earth-sized planets are still too hard to spot.

Big Neighborhood
The nearest star to our Sun - Proxima Centauri - is more than 39,900,000,000,000 km (24,800,000,000,000 miles) away. It takes the light from this dim star more than four years to reach Earth.