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...
initial last mission
This is the capstone of the initial reconnaissance of the planets, the first mission to the last planet.
example horizons last mission nearest
I jokingly say now that New Horizons is the first mission to the nearest example of the last planet.
chihuahua dwarfs ice planetary
Just as a Chihuahua is still a dog, these ice dwarfs are still planetary bodies.
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.
forecast mentors planet turn
Not even Tombaugh and his mentors could have forecast how fascinating their new planet would turn out to be.
belt largest pluto solar structure
The Kuiper Belt is the largest structure in the solar system. We used to think Pluto was a misfit.
collapse happen matter models
Some models say the collapse can be very sudden. It can happen in a matter of months.
belt looking multiple objects percent satellite
Around 20 percent of Kuiper Belt objects have a moon. We think a lot of astronomers are going to be looking now for multiple satellite systems.
built environment fly good job learn
It's now our job to be good stewards of the spacecraft. and to learn to fly it in the real environment that it was built for.
thank
We thank them for being here with us.
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.
candy kids
We'll be like kids in a candy shop.
billion expect miles mission original takes visits
We really expect the mission to be transformational. This is the capstone of the original visits to the planets. It takes us 4 billion miles away and 4 billion years back in time.
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.