What’s Beyond Our Solar System?

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:02]Humanity has always looked up at the night sky and wondered one simple question.

[00:00:07]What is out there?

[00:00:09]For thousands of years, the planets were mysterious lights moving across the darkness.

[00:00:15]Then we discovered they were worlds, rocky planets, gas giants, ice giants, moons, rings, asteroids, comets. But eventually, another question became even bigger.

[00:00:38]The answer [music] is not empty space.

[00:00:41]Beyond our solar system is one of the most mysterious regions humans have ever tried to understand.

[00:00:48]A dark frontier filled with [music] icy worlds, invisible boundaries, ancient comets, cosmic radiation, >> [music] >> and the first human-made spacecraft ever to escape the sun's protective bubble.

[00:01:02]This is [music] the journey beyond the solar system. Our story begins with the sun. The sun is not just the center of the solar system. It is the force that holds everything together.

[00:01:15]>> [music] >> Its gravity controls the motion of planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, [music] comets, and countless icy objects billions of miles away. But the sun also sends out something invisible, a constant stream of charged particles called the solar wind.

[00:01:34]This solar wind flows outward in every direction, creating a huge protective bubble around the solar system. This bubble is [music] called the heliosphere.

[00:01:45]Inside the heliosphere, the sun still has influence. Its [music] particles and magnetic field push against the dangerous radiation coming from deep space. [music] But this bubble does not go on forever.

[00:01:58]Far beyond the planets, the solar wind begins to slow down. It becomes weaker.

[00:02:04]The pressure from interstellar space becomes stronger.

[00:02:07]>> [music] >> And eventually, the sun's protective bubble ends.

[00:02:11]That boundary is [music] called the heliopause.

[00:02:14]Crossing the heliopause means entering interstellar space, [music] the space between stars.

[00:02:20]But before we reach that boundary, [music] we must travel past the most distant planets.

[00:02:26]First, [music] we pass Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, >> [music] >> and Neptune.

[00:02:34]Neptune is the farthest official planet [music] from the sun.

[00:02:38]It is a cold, blue ice giant with supersonic winds.