Philosophy
February 11th, 2013
Oregon Coast Beach Connection
Oh, the plight of poor Pluto. A few years back, the famed last planet in the solar system was downgraded to not even a planet at all, and then eventually bumped up slightly to a planetesimal.
Now, however, the little celestial-body-that-could has what appears to be a new pair of children, and astronomers need help naming them.
Hubble Space Telescope snapped some images in 2011 and 2012 that revealed two previously unknown moons orbiting Pluto. At this time, they are merely called P4 and P5, and astronomers are looking to rectify that. They are asking the public's help in naming the new moons.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, California, is heading up the name-choosing process. With the website Plutorocks.com , you can vote for your favorite name.
SETI said the tradition has been that Pluto's moons were named after characters or aspects of Greek myths regarding Hades, or the Underworld. The three Pluto currently has are Charon, Nix and Hydra.
The nominated names to choose from are Acheron, Alecto, Cerberus, Erebus, Eurydice, Hercules, Hypnos, Lethe, Obol, Orpheus, Persephone and Styx. You can vote for those at the website.
You can still write-in your own favorite, however. There is a write-in form on the site.
SETI said the ground rules are: “Feel free to come back, but please do not vote more than once per day, just so everybody gets a fair chance to make their opinion known. We will take your votes and suggestions into consideration when we propose the names for P4 and P5 to the International Astronomical Union (IAU).”
Voting deadline is noon EST on Monday, February 25.
- A Fuzzy Charon Visible
Scientific American's Christopher Crockett wrote... NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, now en route to Pluto, got its first glimpse of the dwarf planet’s largest moon, Charon, in this image released July 10. Pluto is the bright spot in the center...
- Placating The Masses...pluto's Craters
"Pluto's craters could get Star Trek names" Even though 'Vulcan' has been rejected as the name of one of Pluto's recently discovered moons, an astronomer has left open the possibility of naming some of Pluto's geographical features...
- "vulcan" And "cerberus"...popular Names For Pluto's Moons
"'Vulcan' wins Pluto moon name vote" February 25th, 2013 SpaceDaily In a voting campaign to pick names for two of Pluto's smallest moons one clear winner is "Vulcan," proposed by U.S. actor William Shatner of "Star Trek" fame. Online...
- Fifth Moon Of Pluto
This is significant for I envision New Horizons' dangers dodging small objects and curtailing a long journey. "NASA Hubble Discovers Fifth Moon of Pluto" July 11th, 2012 NASA A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is reporting...
- Semi-official...pluto's New Moon Will Be Called "p4"
An image of the Pluto system taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 ultraviolet visible instrument with newly discovered fourth moon P4 circled, taken on on July 3rd, 2011. "Pass Out the Cigars! Pluto Is a Papa" by Michael D. Lemonick...
Philosophy
Name those moons...Pluto's children
"Oregon Astronomy Watch: Help Name the New Moons of Pluto"
February 11th, 2013
Oregon Coast Beach Connection
Oh, the plight of poor Pluto. A few years back, the famed last planet in the solar system was downgraded to not even a planet at all, and then eventually bumped up slightly to a planetesimal.
Now, however, the little celestial-body-that-could has what appears to be a new pair of children, and astronomers need help naming them.
Hubble Space Telescope snapped some images in 2011 and 2012 that revealed two previously unknown moons orbiting Pluto. At this time, they are merely called P4 and P5, and astronomers are looking to rectify that. They are asking the public's help in naming the new moons.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, California, is heading up the name-choosing process. With the website Plutorocks.com , you can vote for your favorite name.
SETI said the tradition has been that Pluto's moons were named after characters or aspects of Greek myths regarding Hades, or the Underworld. The three Pluto currently has are Charon, Nix and Hydra.
The nominated names to choose from are Acheron, Alecto, Cerberus, Erebus, Eurydice, Hercules, Hypnos, Lethe, Obol, Orpheus, Persephone and Styx. You can vote for those at the website.
You can still write-in your own favorite, however. There is a write-in form on the site.
SETI said the ground rules are: “Feel free to come back, but please do not vote more than once per day, just so everybody gets a fair chance to make their opinion known. We will take your votes and suggestions into consideration when we propose the names for P4 and P5 to the International Astronomical Union (IAU).”
Voting deadline is noon EST on Monday, February 25.
- A Fuzzy Charon Visible
Scientific American's Christopher Crockett wrote... NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, now en route to Pluto, got its first glimpse of the dwarf planet’s largest moon, Charon, in this image released July 10. Pluto is the bright spot in the center...
- Placating The Masses...pluto's Craters
"Pluto's craters could get Star Trek names" Even though 'Vulcan' has been rejected as the name of one of Pluto's recently discovered moons, an astronomer has left open the possibility of naming some of Pluto's geographical features...
- "vulcan" And "cerberus"...popular Names For Pluto's Moons
"'Vulcan' wins Pluto moon name vote" February 25th, 2013 SpaceDaily In a voting campaign to pick names for two of Pluto's smallest moons one clear winner is "Vulcan," proposed by U.S. actor William Shatner of "Star Trek" fame. Online...
- Fifth Moon Of Pluto
This is significant for I envision New Horizons' dangers dodging small objects and curtailing a long journey. "NASA Hubble Discovers Fifth Moon of Pluto" July 11th, 2012 NASA A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is reporting...
- Semi-official...pluto's New Moon Will Be Called "p4"
An image of the Pluto system taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 ultraviolet visible instrument with newly discovered fourth moon P4 circled, taken on on July 3rd, 2011. "Pass Out the Cigars! Pluto Is a Papa" by Michael D. Lemonick...