I'm a science journalist and author of "Distant Wanderers: the Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System" who writes about over-the-horizon technology, primarily astronomy and space science.
I'm a science journalist and author of "Distant Wanderers: the Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System" who writes about over-the-horizon technology, primarily in the realms of astronomy and space science.
FORBES: Decoding A Great Earth Die-Off: Was A Gamma-Ray Burst Really The Trigger?
Today, however, Russia is more likely to partner with the US and other countries to go beyond the shared International Space Station and deeper into the solar system.
To date, of the roughly 800 planets catalogued beyond our Solar System, only four are known to orbit stars in a cluster.
Plate tectonics, the formation of faults and the moving of the continental crust over a molten interior, is a characteristic unique to Earth and it meant that minerals evolved far beyond those on any other planet in the Solar System.
But most of the history of the solar system--this is why the comet is so important--most of the history of this comet was spent out beyond Neptune, out where Pluto is at the very edge of the solar system, what we call the Kuiper belt.
The Kepler mission has identified 132 planets beyond our solar system since its launch in 2009, leading scientists to believe that most stars in our galaxy have planets circling them.
But part of the problem with the definition - I mean, as an example - is that if you look at Mars - if Mars - if we discovered a Mars-sized object out beyond the orbit of Pluto, it couldn't be a planet, because over the age of the solar system it wouldn't have time to clear its orbit.
Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration in the solar system.
ENGADGET: NASA awards Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada $30 million in contracts
While it may become the jumping off point for further exploration of our solar system and beyond, there are more earthly prizes in sight, with some scientists believing that it has the potential to solve the world's dependence on fossil fuels.
Beyond more-efficient solar cells, they're working to slash the cost of components elsewhere in the solar-module system.
WSJ: The Experts: What Will Be the Next Technological Breakthrough in Energy?
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