Alan Stern Objects Quotations

Whether or not an object has a moon is not part of the criteria that we've considered, because so many small objects in the solar system have moons,

Pluto is just the brightest of the many objects in the Kuiper Belt. It's a fossil relic of the formation of our solar system.

I don't believe we should classify planetary objects by location. We should use properties of the objects as a guide.

We know of 17 objects that could be called planets, most of which are ice dwarfs. So Pluto is typical of what is probably the most populous type of planet in our solar system. It probably mimics other Kuiper Belt objects.

Around 20 percent of Kuiper Belt objects have a moon. We think a lot of astronomers are going to be looking now for multiple satellite systems.