I actually started my career in planetary science with a master's thesis on Pluto. — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Pluto and its brethren are the most populous class of planets in our solar system. — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
When I started working with NASA in 1989 as part of a mission to send spacecraft to Pluto, I knew it would… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
By going to Pluto, we have a chance to anchor, with real data, models of the early evolution of Earth's atmosphere. — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
There are lots of really interesting little planets out there in the Kuiper Belt, but Pluto's the only one that's got all… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
I can't imagine how many kids around the world will look at pictures of Pluto and think, 'I want to grow up… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
We were very surprised to find out that Pluto is still geologically alive. It has upended our ideas of how planetary geophysics… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
It's strictly coincidental that Pluto of course was named for the god of the underworld and we're describing these Halloween moons — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Pluto has a very interesting history, and there is a lot of work that we need to do to understand this very… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Whether there's even an ocean on Pluto deep inside is a question I hope New Horizons can address in indirect ways. — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
I tend to think of Pluto and its moons as presents sitting under a Christmas tree. They're wrapped, and from Earth all… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
There was a time when Pluto - which NASA's New Horizons spacecraft at last explored in 2015, a mission I led -… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
It used to be said that Pluto is a misfit. But now we know Earth is the misfit. This is the most… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Pluto is still active four and a half billion years into its history. It was expected that small planets like Pluto would… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Just because Pluto orbits with many other dwarf planets doesn't change what it is, just as whether an object is a mountain… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Just because Pluto or comets aren't as big as Jupiter doesn't mean they are not scientifically important - indeed, just the reverse… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
I think when people see Pluto revealed by New Horizons, its satellite system, its complex surface, its atmosphere, I think they'll have… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
If two billion people wanted to watch a robot fly by Pluto, imagine what it will be like when the first humans… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Pluto is as far across as Manhattan to Miami, but its atmosphere is bigger than the Earth's. — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Of course Pluto is a planet: It's massive enough to have its shape controlled by gravity rather than material strength, which is… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of processes that rival anything we've seen in the solar system. — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
If you go to planetary science meetings and hear technical talks on Pluto, you will hear experts calling it a planet every… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Back before the Kuiper Belt was discovered, Pluto did look like a misfit that didn't belong with either the terrestrials or the… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
As a planetary scientist, I don't know what else to call Pluto: It's big and round and thousands of miles wide. — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Pluto has strong atmospheric cycles: it snows on the surface; the snows sublimate and go back into the atmosphere each 248 year orbit. — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
We really just didn't realize the diversity of planetary types in our solar system. Pluto looked like a misfit because it was… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
We're just learning that a lot of planets are small planets, and we didn't know that before, fact is, in planetary science,… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
New Horizons isn't just visiting Pluto; it's visiting this entire region. Whatever it finds, this will be a signal moment for planetary… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
It's interesting - Pluto's almost a brand unto itself. It's the farthest. It's the most diminutive of the classical planets. It's been… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
You could not have predicted the amazing discoveries at Pluto, even though we have been to a couple of objects in the… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
If the Pluto mission was a cat, then it would've been dead long ago because they only get nine lives, and we've… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
This is in a real sense the capstone of the initial missions to explore the planets. Pluto, its moons and this part… — Alan Stern Copy Share Image
Competition-driven innovation and price pressure that commercial practices foster can only make human spaceflight ever more common and U.S. leadership in this domain ever… — Alan Stern Copy Share
Of course Pluto is a planet: It's massive enough to have its shape controlled by gravity rather than material strength, which is the hallmark… — Alan Stern Copy Share
It used to be said that Pluto is a misfit. But now we know Earth is the misfit. This is the most populous class… — Alan Stern Copy Share
The Kuiper belt region, which I call the third zone because it lies beyond the rocky terrestrial planets and beyond the giant planets, is… — Alan Stern Copy Share
I think if you were between maybe 6 and 16, there was nothing like Apollo, and I wonder if there can be something like… — Alan Stern Copy Share
If you put Earth out beyond Neptune, you wouldn't be able to call it a planet because it couldn't clear its zone. — Alan Stern Copy Share
When we first sent missions to Jupiter, no one expected to find moons that would have active volcanoes. And I could go down a… — Alan Stern Copy Share
Pluto is still active four and a half billion years into its history. It was expected that small planets like Pluto would cool off… — Alan Stern Copy Share
The Kuiper Belt is the largest mapped structure in our planetary system, three times as big as all the territory from the sun out… — Alan Stern Copy Share
If two billion people wanted to watch a robot fly by Pluto, imagine what it will be like when the first humans step on… — Alan Stern Copy Share
To keep everyone invested in your vision, you have to back up a little bit and really analyze who the different stakeholders are and… — Alan Stern Copy Share
We're going to find Marses and maybe Earths out in the solar system's attic of the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt. — Alan Stern Copy Share
One of the implications of the discovery of the Kuiper Belt and its many small planets is that many scientists now think of the… — Alan Stern Copy Share
CASIS has to succeed because for it not to succeed would be a huge setback for the International Space Station program. — Alan Stern Copy Share
