Alan Stern Pluto Quotations

Some of Clyde's ashes are on their way to Pluto today.

It's ... strictly coincidental that Pluto of course was named for the god of the underworld and we're describing these Halloween 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.

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.

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.

This is a whole new chapter in the Pluto story.

The Kuiper Belt is the largest structure in the solar system. We used to think Pluto was a misfit.

Just on a visceral level, the fact that Pluto has a whole suite of companions will make some people feel better.

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.

It's strictly coincidental that Pluto of course was named for the god of the underworld and we're describing these Halloween moons

It used to be said that Pluto is a misfit. But now we know Earth is the misfit. This is the most populous class of planet in our solar system and we have never sent a mission to this class.

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.