Help NASA Name New Features in the Pluto System

Discovered on the 18th of February 1930, by Clyde W. Tombaugh, the planet Pluto was classified as a “dwarf planet” in 2006. While that may seem to be a downgrade, it doesn’t take away from the interest of astronomers.

In fact, NASA has discovered some new features in the Pluto system, which has five moons: Charon (discovered in 1978,), Hydra and Nix (both discovered in 2005), Kerberos originally P4 (discovered 2011) and Styx.

Recently, thanks to the New Horizons mission, NASA found new features on Pluto, as well as its orbiting satellites.

Now, NASA wants our help to name these new features. The campaign was actually announced in March, but the agency has extended it. In a press release, NASA encourages more people to participate.

“Due to increasing interest and the number of submissions we’re getting, it was clear we needed to extend this public outreach activity,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This campaign not only reveals the public’s excitement about the mission, but helps the team, which will not have time to come up with names during the flyby, to have a ready-made library of names in advance to officially submit to the IAU.”

There are no specific requirements regarding who can submit – people of all ages and from all walks of life can participate. To learn about the naming conventions of the IAU, visit this page.

Learn more about submission rules here.