The solar system should be viewed as our backyard, not as some sequence of destinations that we do one at a time.

There are thousands of asteroids whose orbit in the Solar System crosses that of Earth. And we have a little acronym for them - NEOs: near Earth objects. And our biggest goal is to try to catalogue them, so we know in advance if one is going to put us at risk.

Let's find a new way to think about the entire taxonomy of solar system objects, and not clutch to this concept of 'planet,' which, of course, only ever meant, 'Do you move against the background stars, regardless of what you're made of?'

It's time for the human race to enter the solar system.

The Venus transit is not a spectacle the way a total solar eclipse is a spectacle.

We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there.