Alan Stern Solar 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,

We're realizing just how much there is to the deep, outer solar system. I think it's exciting that textbooks have to be rewritten, over and over.

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.

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.

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.

It took us more years to get the mission beyond the Washington beltway than it will take to cross the entire Solar System.

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