Alan Stern Lane Quotations

This is, in a very real sense, the capstone of the initial reconnaissance of the planets that the United States has led for the world since the 1960s.

Our result suggests other bodies in the Kuiper Belt may have more than one moon. It also means planetary scientists will have to take these new moons into account when modeling the formation of the Pluto system.

Even though it's not as sensitive or as high resolution as the Hubble, we're able to look at the inner planets close to the sun and map wide regions of the sky very quickly.

We've learned that the view of four inner rocky planets and four outer gas giants and one misfit Pluto is wrong. Now we understand Pluto's context.

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

This is in a very real sense the capstone of the initial reconnaissance of the planets that the United States has led for the world since the 1960s.

I like to call this mission the Everest of planetary exploration. It's really fantastic.

Exploring Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is like conducting an archaeological dig into the history of the outer solar system, a place where we can peek into the ancient era of planetary formation.

It used to be that Pluto was a misfit. Now it turns out that Earth is the misfit. Most planets in the solar system look like Pluto, and not like the terrestrial planets.

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.

Not even Tombaugh and his mentors could have forecast how fascinating their new planet would turn out to be.

Just as a Chihuahua is still a dog, these ice dwarfs are still planetary bodies.

This is the capstone of the missions to the planets that NASA has led since the 1960s.