Alan Stern
Alan Stern
Sol Alan Sternis an American engineer and planetary scientist. He is the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Chief Scientist at Moon Express...
four gas giants inner learned outer planets pluto rocky understand view
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.
brightest fossil objects pluto relic solar
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.
ashes pluto
Some of Clyde's ashes are on their way to Pluto today.
ancient belt conducting dig era exploring history outer peek planetary pluto solar
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.
course describing god halloween named pluto strictly underworld
It's ... strictly coincidental that Pluto of course was named for the god of the underworld and we're describing these Halloween moons.
earth planets pluto solar system turns
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.
halloween moon pluto
It's strictly coincidental that Pluto of course was named for the god of the underworld and we're describing these Halloween moons
class earth pluto
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.
belt ice objects planet pluto solar type typical
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.
account belt bodies means modeling planetary pluto result scientists
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.
chapter pluto
This is a whole new chapter in the Pluto story.
companions fact people pluto visceral
Just on a visceral level, the fact that Pluto has a whole suite of companions will make some people feel better.
belt largest pluto solar structure
The Kuiper Belt is the largest structure in the solar system. We used to think Pluto was a misfit.
arrive candy kids shop system
We're going to be like kids in a candy shop when we arrive at a system like this.