REAL LIFE NEWS: NASA WANTS YOUR HELP TO NAME KUIPER BELT OBJECT
by Hazed
The New Horizons spacecraft will fly past a tiny frozen rock in the Kuiper Belt, way out on the far edge of the solar system, on January 1 2019. The icy world has the official designation of “(486958) 2014 MU69” or MU69 for short.
But that’s very boring, so NASA want to give it a more poetic name, and they are asking the public for help.
NASA will choose a formal name for MU69 after the flyby, and will submit it to the International Astronomical Union. That name will depend on what New Horizons finds out about the rock: whether it’s a single body, a binary pair or even a cluster of multiple objects.
But in the meantime they want a nickname that can be used by the mission, and they are open to suggestions from anyone. The link to suggest your nickname for MU69 is on the source page below.
You’ve got until December 1 to come up with something.
And please, don’t suggest Rocky McRockface!
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/help-nickname-new-horizons-next-flyby-target
