Seth Shostak Quotes

In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet.

The gas-giant planets in our solar system all have large moons.

What I want to look at with Webb is what we call ice giants in our solar system - the planets Neptune and Uranus.

The earth together with its surrounding waters must in fact have such a shape as its shadow reveals, for it eclipses the moon with the arc of a perfect circle.

The light from the sun breaks through space, bathing our planet as it encircles the sun with life-giving warmth and light. Without the sun, there could be no life on this planet; it would be forever barren, cold, and dark.

Saturn itself is a giant planet, and there's much to be gained by investigating its meteorology and studying its magnetic field.

Weather forecast for Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt: cloudy with a chance of ammonia.

I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there - that is living.

The sun to me is dark And silent as the moon, When she deserts the night Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.

The sun had become a light yellow yolk and was walking with red legs across the sky.

At least, the sun had the decency to stay the hell away from us.

Do you see that out there? The strange, unfamiliar light? It's called the sun. Let's go get us a little.

As a planetary system, Saturn holds the greatest promise for answering questions that have a far broader scientific reach than Saturn itself.

If you go to planetary science meetings and hear technical talks on Pluto, you will hear experts calling it a planet every day.

The geysering on Enceladus is the most astonishing phenomenon we have in our solar system.

Most of the solar system resides beyond the orbits of the asteroids. There is more to learn there about general planetary processes than on Mars.

My field is called planetary science.

There are other planets besides the Earth and Mars. I'd like to remind you that studying Venus is vital to understanding life elsewhere.

The questions that we scientist have about Saturn's rings are the questions that an ordinary person might be moved to ask when first seeing them, you know. What caused them? How did they get there? How long have they been around? How long are they going to last?

Pluto is the new Mars.

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.

As a planetary scientist, I don't know what else to call Pluto: It's big and round and thousands of miles wide.

Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of processes that rival anything we've seen in the solar system.

Generally speaking, exoplanets can be any size, and they are found in a wide range of orbits. Some have massive gas atmospheres; others are smaller with an icy or rocky composition.

I do a lot of work with NASA and am involved in research projects studying planetary evolution, Earth-like planets, and potential conditions for life elsewhere.