It looks like, because of the geometry, that we might actually be able to fly pretty close to both of those satellites.

It’s always exciting to find a new object in the solar system. This gives us further support that a giant collision took place at the beginning of the solar system.

If we want to understand the process by which planets and moons are formed, we need to understand both (Pluto’s and Earth’s) systems.

This is the first reconnaissance mission of this region of the solar system. It’s the only one of the nine planets that hasn’t been explored, so this can complete the inventory of the solar system.

It’s possible that the C fragment may still come back again.

We’re not going to be around then, and Pluto’s still unexplored. This is our opportunity. If we miss it, I think that our civilization will regret it.

Little pieces of evidence kept coming out in our favor and making the case. The two moons are almost exactly where we’d predicted they’d be.

We think a lot of secrets about the formation and evolution of the solar system will be found there.

It’s almost like a mini-solar system. How can something about 70 percent the size of Earth’s moon have all these satellites? How can that happen? We’re going to have to explain that.

If, as our new Hubble images indicate, Pluto has not one, but two or three moons, it will become the first body in the Kuiper Belt known to have more than one satellite.

I can’t really say we’re really surprised. We proposed this, to look for satellites around Pluto.

The New Horizons mission is going somewhere no mission has gone before. This is the frontier of planetary science.