Alan Stern

One of the implications of the discovery of the Kuiper Belt and its many small planets is that many scientists now think of the solar system as having not two but three zones. ”

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 maligned by astronomers. It's always the one with all the question marks in the back of the textbook in the table. I think children identify with it because it's smaller, kind of cute. ”

CASIS has to succeed because for it not to succeed would be a huge setback for the International Space Station program. ”

Pluto has strong atmospheric cycles: it snows on the surface; the snows sublimate and go back into the atmosphere each 248 year orbit. ”

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 of planethood. ”

I'm the one who originally coined the term 'dwarf planet,' back in the nineteen-nineties. ”

Back before the Kuiper Belt was discovered, Pluto did look like a misfit that didn't belong with either the terrestrials or the giant planets. ”

I think that one of the things that will come out of the New Horizons mission is that the public will take a look, and they won't know what else to call Pluto but a planet - and a pretty exciting one. ”

I tell public audiences, don't go to a podiatrist for brain surgery; don't go to an astronomer for planetary science. ”

I can't imagine how many kids around the world will look at pictures of Pluto and think, 'I want to grow up to be a scientist.' ”