[meteorite-list] 'Vulcan' and 'Cerberus' Win Pluto Moon Naming Poll

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:09:47 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201302251909.r1PJ9li0009891_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.space.com/19943-pluto-moons-name-poll-vulcan.html

'Vulcan' and 'Cerberus' Win Pluto Moon Naming Poll
by Miria Kramer
space.com
25 February 2013

The votes are in, and it looks like 'Vulcan' could be the new name
for one of Pluto's smallest moons.

After weeks of online ballot casting by people around the world, the
poll asking the public to name two of Pluto's moons - currently called
P4 and P5 - ended today (Feb. 25).

As of 12 p.m. (1700 GMT), the polls closed with a total of
450,324 total votes cast since Feb. 11 with 'Vulcan,' a Pluto moon name
proposed by Star Trek's William Shatner, is the clear winner.

"174,062 votes and Vulcan came out on top of the voting for the naming
of Pluto's moons. Thank you to all who voted! MBB," wrote Shatner via
Twitter.

Cerberus came in a clear second with nearly 100,000 votes.

Vulcan was a late addition to the Pluto moon name contenders, and pulled
into the lead after Shatner, building on his Capt. James T. Kirk persona,
plugged the name on Twitter. Vulcan, the home planet of Kirk's alien-human
hybrid first officer Spock, is not just a fictional world in the Star Trek
universe. It is also the name of the god of fire in Roman mythology, and
officials at SETI added the sci-fi favorite to the ballot for that reason.

"Vulcan is the Roman god of lava and smoke, and the nephew of Pluto. (Any
connection to the Star Trek TV series is purely coincidental, although we
can be sure that Gene Roddenberry read the classics.)," wrote SETI scientist
Mark Showalter in a blog officially adding the name to the list on Feb. 12. "
Thanks to William Shatner for the suggestion!"

These votes don't necessarily mean that P4 and P5 will end up being called
Vulcan and Cerberus, however. SETI is going to recommend the winning names
to the International Astronomical Union - the organization responsible for
naming the moons. The IAU will take the results into consideration, but
ultimately they have final say over what the tiny moons are called.

Pluto has five moons that astronomers currently know of. Scientists first
caught sight of Pluto's largest moon Charon in 1978, but it was not until
2005 that astronomers discovered two other moons (Nix and Hydra) using the
Hubble Space Telescope.

The moon P5 was discovered in 2012, also using the Hubble telescope . The
moon P4 was discovered in 2011. Both P4 and P5 are only 15 to 20 miles
(20 to 30 km) in diameter.
Received on Mon 25 Feb 2013 02:09:47 PM PST