The big lesson of planetary science is when you do a first reconnaissance of a new kind of object, you should expect the unexpected. Alan Stern More Quotes by Alan Stern More Quotes From Alan Stern By going to Pluto, we have a chance to anchor, with real data, models of the early evolution of Earth's atmosphere. Alan Stern data chance real earth I tend to think of Pluto and its moons as presents sitting under a Christmas tree. They're wrapped, and from Earth all we can do is look at the boxes to see whether they're light or heavy, to see if something maybe jiggles a bit inside. We're seeing intriguing things, but we really don't know what's in there. Alan Stern look christmas light tree One thing scientists do is to find order among a large number of facts, and one way to do that across fields as diverse as biology, geology, physics and astronomy is through classification. Alan Stern biology physics facts way The Kuiper Belt is the largest mapped structure in our planetary system, three times as big as all the territory from the sun out to Neptune's orbit. Alan Stern big structure three sun Science doesn't work by voting. Did people vote on the theory of relativity? No! It's either right or it's wrong. Do we vote on whether genetics is a good theory or not? Of course not. Alan Stern good work science people As a scientist in charge of space sensors and entire space missions before I was at NASA, I myself was involved in projects that overran. But that's no excuse for remaining silent about this growing problem or failing to champion reform. Alan Stern myself champion space problem Are governments the only entities that can build human spacecraft? No - actually, every human spacecraft ever built for NASA was built by private industry. Alan Stern nasa build human only The Pluto system is much more complex than I had expected. Alan Stern system than complex more That so many binary or quasi-binary KBOs exist came as a real surprise to the research community. Alan Stern surprise community research real We were very surprised to find out that Pluto is still geologically alive. It has upended our ideas of how planetary geophysics works. Alan Stern find how alive ideas There was a time when Pluto - which NASA's New Horizons spacecraft at last explored in 2015, a mission I led - was considered the last planet. We now know there are thousands of other - possibly inhabited - planets. Alan Stern mission new know time
