'Cerberus' Leads for New Pluto Moon Name

[n2doc]

Two labeled images of the Pluto system, released on July 20, 2011, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 ultraviolet visible instrument with newly discovered fourth moon P4 circled. The image on the left was taken on June 28, 2011. The image of the right was taken on July 3, 2011.


A fourth moon orbiting the dwarf planet Pluto has just been discovered. The tiny satellite — it's a mere 8 to 21 miles (13 to 34 km) across — showed up as a faint dot on new, long-exposure photos of the Pluto system taken by NASA's Hubble Telescope.

But enough with the technical details: What will we call the newest member of the solar community?

"It's called P4 for the time being," said Trent Perrotto, public affairs officer at NASA headquarters. "It'll get a name, but it's not up to NASA to decide on it." As usual with newly discovered astronomical objects, he explained, P4's name will be subject to a tough selection process overseen by an organization called the International Astronomical Union.

In an unofficial Facebook poll of SPACE.com readers, the top choice is "Mickey." Unfortunately for them, though, this won't satisfy the IAU's official naming conventions. According to the IAU guidelines, "Objects crossing or approaching the orbit of Neptune … notably , are given mythological names associated with the underworld."

more

http://www.space.com/12374-pluto-moon-choice-cerberus-hell.html

Not a planet? Hah!

[Ian David]

1. I was hoping they'd name it Colbert. n/t

[MineralMan]

2. Dumbledore, maybe?

Or, given its size, Dobby.

[chaplainM]

3. Moons are named after the attendants...

...of the Greek version of the Roman god for whom the planet is named. For example, Jupiter's moons are named after Zeus's (the Greek name for Jupiter) attendant's. The exception is Uranus, whose moons all bear the names of Shakespeare's characters.

[Posteritatis]

4. I'd want Cerberus saved for something more substantial, myself. (nt)

[laconicsax]

5. Yes, not a planet.

Hundreds of objects in the solar system have moons. Do we call them all planets?

Pluto is a dwarf planet, like Ceres, Eris, Makemake, and Haumea.