Artist’s rendition of Pluto and two of it’s moons.
In the last few years, a fourth and fifth moon has been discovered revolving around Pluto by the Hubble Space Telescope, and they will be named by popular consensus. Conventionally, Pluto’s moons have been named after Greek or Roman mythological figures relating to the underworld, since Pluto was the Roman god of the Underworld. Fearing the public would mass vote such names as “Mickey Mouse”, scientists put some limitations to the vote, suggesting names that fit into the underworld god theme.
Enter Shatner.
William Shatner, Captain Kirk of the old-school Star Trek series for all you nubcakes, Tweeted,
“So what do you think of the idea of naming the two moons of Pluto Vulcan and Romulus? You have mythology, pos[itive] and neg[ative].”
Vulcan does happen to be a Roman god and he’s a nephew to Pluto, but even though Vulcan is the god of lava and smoke instead of a god of the underworld, the decision makers in this name Pluto’s moons contest were amused enough that they went ahead and added “Vulcan” to the list of approved choices.
Will one of Pluto’s moons wind up with the name “Vulcan”? At first it didn’t look like it. But as Shatner has 1.3 million followers on Twitter, it wasn’t like he didn’t have the means to get the word out. In time “Vulcan” racked up 60,000 votes out of the 234,720 voted so far, making it top pick.
Think the rocks there have pointy ears?
Source: Cosmic Log