Help name Pluto's moons

02/11/2013

Alecto?

Hercules?

Hypnos?

Astronomers want your help naming Pluto's two new moons (new to us, that is.)

The Hubble Space Telescope spotted the two moons in 2011 and 2012. They're called P4 and P5 for now.

As Mark Showalter, a planetary astronomer and senior research scientist at SETI explains on the ballot:

"By tradition, the names of Pluto's moons come from Greek and Roman mythology, and are related to the ancient tales about Hades and the Underworld."

The current ballot has a list of 12 mythological names, but they are accepting write-in votes.

Cast your ballot here.

Kate Allen is the Toronto Star’s global science and technology reporter. Follow her on Twitter @katecallen

Posted by Kate Allen at 02:45:00 PM in Science, Space

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02/11/2013