REAL LIFE NEWS: PLUTO’S NEW MOONS GET NAMED
by Hazed
Kerberos and Styx are now the official names of the fourth and fifth moons of Pluto. That’s much more catchy than their previous names, P4 and P5.
The new names have been selected to match the underworld mythology: Kerberos is the three-headed dog from Greek myths (usually spelled Cerberus but there’s already an asteroid with that name) and Styx is the river that separates the world of the living from the realm of the dead.
The two moons were discovered in 2011 and 2012 by a team of astronomers at the SETI Institute in California, using the Hubble space telescope.
A public vote was held to choose the two new names - but the International Astronomical Union did not go along with the most popular choice, which was Vulcan and was backed by actor William Shatner from Star Trek. That name was rejected because it’s already in use in astronomy, as the name for a planet once thought to exist closer to the sun than Mercury. Even though we all now know there is no such planet, the IAU thought it would be too confusing.
Shame!
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/03/pluto_moons_named_kerberos_styx/
