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NASA / ESA / STScI
Internet users can vote on what to name Pluto's most recently found moons, P4 and P5.
The discoverers of Pluto's fourth and fifth moons are letting Internet users have a say in what they should be named, by throwing the question open for a non-binding advisory vote.
The "Pluto Rocks" project, organized by the SETI Institute, is part of a trend pointing toward getting the public involved in the outer-space naming process. NASA, for example, has solicited name suggestions for the asteroid due to be visited by the OSIRIS-REx probe, and for one of the modules on the International Space Station (more on that later).
This time, the objects to be named are two tiny satellites of Pluto that were found during a detailed analysis of data from the Hubble Space Telescope: P4, which was discovered in 2011; and P5, detected just last year. The moons are only 15 to 20 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) across, at the limit of Hubble's observing power. The astronomers behind the discoveries were checking out Pluto's surroundings just to make sure the way was clear for NASA's New Horizons probe to fly past the dwarf planet in 2015.
Convention dictates that the discoverers of celestial bodies get to suggest names for adoption by the International Astronomical Union. When P4 and P5 were revealed, "I received literally hundreds of suggestions," said one of the leaders of the discovery teams, Mark Showalter, an astronomer at the SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe.
Showalter has been involved in the naming of moons before (Saturn's Pan, as well as Uranus' Mab and Cupid), but that was nothing compared with the clamor over P4 and P5. "It seems that the public has a much greater interest in Pluto," he said.
He said it was Alan Stern, the principal investigator for the $700 million New Horizons mission, who suggested putting the name question up for a public vote. "I just jumped on it when he suggested it," Showalter said.
The ballot on the Pluto Rocks website offers 12 potential names for perusal, all of which follow the precedent that Pluto and its moons are named after Greek or Roman mythological figures with a connection to the underworld. Pluto, for example, was master of the underworld. Charon, Pluto's largest moon, is named after the boatsman that ferried the souls of the dead across the River Styx. The moons Nix and Hydra, discovered in 2005, were named after the goddess of the night and a many-headed monster that guarded one of the entrances to the underworld.
The 12 suggested names for P4 and P5 are Acheron, Alecto, Cerberus, Erebus, Eurydice, Heracles, Hypnos, Lethe, Obol, Orpheus, Persephone and Styx. Some of these names have already been used for asteroids, and in those cases, the teams might go for variant spellings just to avoid any confusion (for example, Orfeus instead of Orpheus, or Kerberos instead of Cerberus). Write-in votes are also allowed, and some of those write-ins might end up being added to the official ballot.
The voting deadline is Feb. 25. After the vote, the discovery teams will choose two names to submit to the IAU, and announce which names won out after their formal approval — most likely by April or so. "We're not going to guarantee that they'll be the top two names [in the voting], but they'll probably be high on the list," Showalter said. "We're not going to all this trouble just to pick names that we chose already."
Showalter and his colleagues want to retain some control just to make sure that they don't get railroaded by a media-driven ballot-stuffing campaign, such as the one that marked NASA's "name-the-module" contest in 2009. Back then, talk-show comedian Stephen Colbert drummed up more than 200,000 write-in votes to get a space station module named after himself. The space agency ended up calling the module Tranquility instead, but named the treadmill inside the module "C.O.L.B.E.R.T." as a consolation prize.
There could be similar shenanigans this time around, especially in light of Pluto's pop-culture popularity. "I suspect Minnie and Mickey will be high on the list of write-ins," Showalter joked.
The moon-naming contest could reignite the years-long controversy over the IAU's classification of Pluto as a "dwarf planet" rather than an honest-to-goodness planet — but Showalter said the labels don't matter all that much to him. "It's a very small planet, and it seems to me appropriate, based on its size, to call it a dwarf planet," he said. "I don't see that as a demotion."
Could Pluto have even more moons? That's the big reason why the discovery teams took so long to address the naming of P4 and P5. "Frankly, we wanted to wait until we scoured the data," just in case there was a sixth moon to add to the list, Stern said. But after months of scrutinizing the Hubble data, the astronomers concluded that the next discoveries would have to come from the New Horizons probe.
"Come 2015, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we have a P6, P7 and P8 to deal with," Showalter said.
More about Pluto and its moons:
- Pluto's moons offer clues to alien worlds
- Pluto's atmosphere larger than previously thought
- All about Pluto from NBCNews.com
- Cosmic Log archive on Pluto
A Google+ Hangout is scheduled on Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT) with Showalter and another scientist involved in the Pluto moon discoveries, Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Questions from viewers will be taken during the event using Twitter (hashtag #PlutoRocks), the SETI Institute Facebook page and the Google Hangout.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Published at 9 a.m. ET Feb. 11, 2013.
Leave a Comment:
Perhaps the kids would like Kix and Trix to go along with Nix. Or, movie buffs might prefer Pix and Flix. P6, when found, could then just be Six.
Silly wabbit. Trix are for kids. But seriously...........doesn't the orbits of Pluto and Neptune cross one another? I see a big shakeup in the next million years.
At some points the Pluto is closer to the sun than Neptune, but the orbits don't "cross" in such a way as to cause a collision. But you need a 3d picture you can rotate to really see this, all the flat-2d maps make it look like the orbits touch.
They're not in the same plane...
Is "Pluto-Is-A-Planet" off the table?
Can a non-planet have moons?
Sure -- some asteroids have moons. But can a moon have a moon?
Pluto will always be a planet for me!
Wouldn't help if they understood what those names mean before they use them and name things after them ?
I'm just glad we don't name them after Norse Gods and Goddesses. I would never be able to pronounce them.
How about calling one "Plutocrat" in honor of those stealing the wealth of our nation and others. Since it is located in a very dim and cold place.
It's obvious to me. Chip and Dale.
I'm glad I read the comments before sounding in. Chip and Dale were the obvious candidates with Marvin held in reserve.
Actually, Marvin should be held in check in case we stumble over another moon around Mars; Marvin the Martian -- Sorry
It would be nice to see one of the moons named either "Ulen" or more preferably, "Khora". For me it would be in memory of my late father who was a man who highly appreciated and studied vigorously, all the sciences.
"Khôra (Khora or Chora; Ancient Greek: χώρα) is a philosophical term described by Plato in Timaeus as a receptacle, a space, or an interval. It is neither being nor nonbeing but an interval between in which the "forms" were originally held. Khôra "gives space" and has maternal overtones (a womb, matrix)."
Name the moons Goofy and Donald~ change the other 3 to Mickey,Minnie and Clarabelle~
Have SOME fun !!
I vote for your names #8.
I was thinking along similar lines but with slight adjustments. Minimus for the smaller one and Mickimus for the other.
Correct me if I am wrong, wasn't Pluto demoted as a plannet because they claimed it was just an ice ball in space ? So if it's not a planet, how can it have moons ?
Pluto was designated a "dwarf planet" - that is, an object that is big and heavy enough to pretty much retain a round shape but is among other objects at a similar orbital distance from the sun. I would argue that a dwarf planet is a kind of planet, just as asteroids are considered "minor planets." And it's possible for irregular asteroids to have moons, even if they're not considered planets in the IAU's sense of the term. Ida and Dactyl are an example.
Search the IAU Definition of a planet, which has a lot of information about the decisions that go into this.
I am still amazed that the World has allowed the IAU, an Organization with no political power whatsoever to demote the Planet Pluto. Whats even more amazing is that nations and people do not realize they do not have to accept the IAU's opinion that Pluto is not a planet... Concerning naming the moons. I think its a good idea but later, the same organization, the IAU will simply say the names are unrecognized then they will add some fancy IAU name to the moons and call it official when they really have no power to do so.
And this is my Opinion on the IAU in general and also in naming the moons of the Planet Pluto,
But has the IAU ever changed any names after they were chosen? With billions of objects yet to be named, why would they waste their time?
There was a case where people named craters on the moon in some kind of name the craters contest but I am not sure this is the same class of event as the naming the Planet Pluto's moons. In that case the IAU (Or some other body) renamed the craters after famous astronomers etc. Or the craters received IAU names etc.
This might be incorrect also, I "Think" This happened sometime in the 1990's or very early 2000's.
You're wrong. It was reclassified because of its size. Otherwise Sedna, which is larger than Pluto, would also have to be called a planet. As for the IAU, they're the best organization to handle such matters. Without political power, they are less likely to bow to political pressure and stick to the actual science.
Also asteroids can have moons as well. You may want to check the scientific definition of a moon as well as planet.
"I am still amazed that the World has allowed..."
Sorry, but this is hardly 'the World's' number one issue...
"...the IAU, an Organization with no political power whatsoever to demote the Planet Pluto."
What has political power have to do with it? who would you rather made the choice about these things? Pluto doesn't belong to any one government. Politics would only make this more complicated, trust me.
"Whats even more amazing is that nations and people do not realize they do not have to accept the IAU's opinion that Pluto is not a planet.."
Refer to my first comment. Nations just don't eat, sleep and breathe this matter, even if some individuals do. Any decision will be arbitrary to some extent. I can just see 20 countries, with 30 different names in their textbooks for this object...
The only difference between giant stars, dwarf stars, gas giant planets and dwarf planets, is that you (and I) grew up with all but the latter. That's all. But I'm not married to classifications. As you learn new things, sometimes they need to change, and you can't 'grandfather' in the old deginations, in order to be consistent.
"...and call it official when they really have no power to do so."
As if anyone else really does instead?
Pluto doesn't care what we call it, Pluto doesn't care how we classify it. It's still the same object it always was. A probe is still en route there, regardless. You may not like the IAU, but there's no higher power to appeal to here. Alverant is right. Give it up.
Romney
please
I thought pluto was no longer a planet?? will scientists please make up their mind if pluto is a planet or a dwarf rock floating in space?
And also i don't see how voting on names will help pick a name. Most of the time when things are discovered they are named after the scientist who discovered them.
If they put a "vote" out there will be people who don't like the name it gets so their will end up being debates and bids on what the name should be; wasting valuable time and money for OTHER problems we need to Solve at HOME like the Economy lol
What do you mean "make up their mind?"
Nowhere in this article does it refer to Pluto as a planet.
Moons are never named after the person who discovered them. Where on earth did you even get that notion? They've always been named after greek/roman mythological figures.
Mitch, scientists do not share a single mind.
"If they put a "vote" out there will be people who don't like the name it gets so their will end up being debates and bids on what the name should be; wasting valuable time and money for OTHER problems we need to Solve at HOME like the Economy lol"
Yes, people would indeed try to 'buy' a name this way...if they thought it important enough to them. But get real. The people who might do this are not the ones who would be 'solving the economy at home' anyway. The people with any power to do that (if anyone really has it), are already not wasting their time on this.
It may be of interest to know that one can apply to have a deep-space feature named after themselves. I do not have the exact process at hand.
As far as naming astronomical objects in general, it would be most appropriate to turn to the arts, music, film and again, literature for names if the astronomers can not think of any. Literature as been used already, as of course, also mythology and both hold many more possibilities for names.
I'm pretty sure you do get naming rights to a newly discovered comet...
If you're talking about the Star Registry, it's a fake--a money-making scam. They say they'll name a star after you or a loved one--for a fee, of course. Then they photocopy a page from a star atlas, indicate a dot on the page (which might be a star, or might just be a smudge on the page), and tell you it's your star. And it has zero recognition, beyond you and anybody you care to share it with.
Alan,
Thanks for this. My daughter, niece, and nephew are always excited when things like this come up because they really feel like they're helping shape the future of space.
I also wanted to thank you for your heads up on the asteroid naming contest. My daughter entered, and her suggestion (Thoth) is now a semifinalist. A few weeks after she entered, she got hit by a car, and had to go through knee surgery and is still struggling with a traumatic brain injury. It's been hard on her, and she was starting to get discouraged.
When she got the news that she was a semifinalist, it changed her whole world. She's doing so much better, and her interest in science has redoubled. So, even if "Thoth" doesn't make it to the finals, this experience has changed her life for the better. And I wouldn't have known about it if you hadn't told us.
Thank you!
Best wishes and hopes for your daughter's recovery.
mickey and porky
please call one Zia. thanks
Current Tally as of 11 Feb 1526 ET
VOTERS 14765
Styx and Cerberus are in the lead.
There's already an asteroid with the designation 399 Persephone...
Nothing precludes Moons and Asteroids from sharing the same name. Typically alternate spellings are used when they are shared.
As soon as I saw the article the names Mickey and Minnie popped into mind.
I'm with you, Andy. Just perfect!!!!!!!
hmmmm....i wish we didnt have to follow certain naming rules, I would've suggested "Raybra", for my favorite author, Ray Bradbury, who just passed last year.
No one can force us to use a given name. The IAU is the closest thing we have to an "official" authority on naming and defining terms such as planet. If you can build up a critical mass of folks to rename moons, planets, whatever, or reinstate Pluto as a planet, so be it. I think it's a good thing that folks in the business -- in this case the astronomy business -- to have the final say, but the IAU isn't the only organization of astronomers.
Gee, when I thought of Pluto's moons, the first names that popped into my mind were Phydeaux and Rover.
P4 ... Capone
P5 ... Gambino
I vote Stephen Colbert.is there oil on Pluto ?
planets have moons. this planet should have a decently named moon, OR ELSE WE NAME IT RALPH...just to tick off the french...
first person there get to RENAME it!!
P4 Mickey
P5 Donald
If not acceptable, Obol and Cerberus
P4 Sagan
p5 Tyson
Too bad they have to be Greek names. My first thought was Sheldon and Leonard!