In July , New Horizons will pay a sojourn to Pluto and Charon . The historical flyby is expect to expose surface features of these objects in extraordinary detail . Now , NASA and the SETI Institute , along with the International Astronomical Union , desire your aid naming these feature article .
When New Horizons zips past Pluto on July 14 , the science squad wo n’t have enough time to come up with the name calling of feature . This is why the world has been asked to vote on a list of names , or intimate their own , in advance .
“ Pluto belongs to everyone , ” note New Horizon scientific discipline team member Mark Showalter in a SETI Institutestatement , “ So we want everyone to be involved in make the mapping of this aloof world . ”
The full ballot , which can be foundhere(and a simplified interpretation for childrenhere ) , is divided into three class : story of Exploration , Literature of Exploration , and Mythology of the Underworld . Here are what the ballots look like :
Hmm , not sure why Indiana Jones is on there , but whatever . Great to see so many scifi nods , both preceding and present .
ballot ends on April 7 , after which meter the New Horizons team will assort through the gens and posit their recommendations to the International Astronomical Union ( IAU ) . The IAU will then decide how the name are to be apply .
A few old age ago , a similar military campaign was used to name the two smallest known Moon of Pluto , Kerberos and Styx .
“ The difference is that last meter we only take two names , whereas now we could need more than a hundred , ” said Showalter . “ We are eager to gather recommendations from people all over the reality . ”
AstronomyNew HorizonsPlutoScienceSpace
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