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...
moon nine months
It'll be the fastest spacecraft ever to Jupiter...13 months after launch. We pass the Moon in just nine hours.
opportunity space people
Naming celestial objects is usually done by astronomers and professionals. Other people who are interested in space never get the opportunity to do that kind of thing.
real moon horizon
This is in a real sense the capstone of the initial missions to explore the planets. Pluto, its moons and this part of the solar system are such mysteries that New Horizons will rewrite all of the textbooks.
criteria moon object objects small solar system whether
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,
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.
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.
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.
belt largest pluto solar structure
The Kuiper Belt is the largest structure in the solar system. We used to think Pluto was a misfit.
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.
ashes pluto
Some of Clyde's ashes are on their way to Pluto today.
billion bit conditions giant observe outer provides rewriting textbooks time window
It provides for us a window 41/2 billion years back in time to observe the formation conditions of giant planets. This is a little bit about rewriting the textbooks about the outer planets.
arrival certain date july quite
I have July 14, 2015, emblazoned on my calendar. That's our arrival date at Pluto. We are now quite certain of that.
describing god halloween named 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.