New Moons of Pluto Named Kerberos and Styx; Popular Choice 'Vulcan' Snubbed

MarkWhittington writes "The International Astronomical Union announced on July 2, 2013 its picks to name the two recently discovered moons of Pluto, hitherto known as P4 and P5. They will now be known as Kerberos and Styx respectively. In Greek and Roman mythology Kerberos is the name of the mythological three headed hound that guards the entrance to the underworld. Styx is the name of the river that separated the underworld from the real world. The names, picked in a popular contest, were actually the second and third choices. The first choice was Vulcan, which was officially touted because it was the name of a Roman god who was a relative of Pluto's and was associated with fire and smoke. The real reason that Vulcan shot up to the top of the list was that was a choice by Star Trek fans in a campaign instigated by actor William Shatner, who played Captain James Kirk in the original series." Shatner is sad and may lead a revolt. Phil Plait wins the award for best headline for this news.

Styx Rawks!

[Sponge Bath]

Why must you be such an angry young man?

Re:

[BenSchuarmer]

Domo arigato

Re:Styx Rawks!

[sconeu]

I think you've got too much time on your hands.

Re:

[SteveFoerster]

These terrible jokes! I've gotten weary and I've had enough!

Re:Styx Rawks!

[Ol Biscuitbarrel]

Joel: Hey, c'mon, I'm serious. There existed a time when our nation took pride in its service stations. They gleamed like a beacon of hope from coast to coast. Then, ka-blooey, Sky Chief Super Service turned into the Tank and Tummy. I don't mind telling you, the day this country went self-service was the day Hell began to bubble up and flood the earth.
Crow: Well, I hate to burst your bubble, Joel, but what about the bubonic plague? World war? Stalin?
Joel: Well, those are all big things. Hell works better when it's a lot more subtle. Here, I'll give you an example. Okay, Crow, what do you think of Adolf Hitler?
Crow: Well, I hate him, naturally.
Joel: Right. Now, what do you think of the band Styx?
Crow: Well, they had one or two decent...Oh my God, you're right!

Shred of dignity

[onyxruby]

Thankfully real space programs prefer to operate with a shred of dignity and class. Next thing you know we would have demands to name a moon somewhere after a character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

Re:

[ArcadeMan]

We demand to have a moon called Usagi, just to piss off people like you.

Re:

[0racle]

I approve of this message.

Re:Shred of dignity

[White Flame]

Kerberos and Styx were the equivalent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters thousands of years ago.

Re:

[rubycodez]

Ceberos was, but Styx would be more like the StarGate

Re:Shred of dignity

[Antipater]

Unless the StarGate has a personified form and wasn't just a gate (never saw any of the series), then not really. Rivers in Greek and Roman mythology were minor gods who could take bodily form. Styx, in her goddess form, was a character of moderate importance in the war between the gods and the Titans.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[RDW]

No chance for Buffy if NASA wouldn't even name an ISS module 'Serenity', even when they thought up the name and it won the popular vote ('Colbert' excepted):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranquility_(ISS_module)#Naming_contest [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[ackthpt]

Thankfully real space programs prefer to operate with a pretext of a shred of dignity and class. Next thing you know we would have demands to name a moon somewhere after a character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

Or a warrior princess...

Whose moons are these, some stinkin' committee, which allowed a bunch of frauds to demote Pluto to "dwarf planet" with disgusting act of skulduggery?

Re:

[spire3661]

Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101) wasnt named after the aircraft carrier........

Re:Shred of dignity

[dan828]

Well, there were at least 6 ships named "Enterprise" in the US Navy, and the likelihood is that when Roddenberry was choosing the a name for his fictional vessel, he named it after either the WW2 Carrier (which was the most decorated warship in US history) or the newer Enterprise which was the US's first nuclear powered carrier. So pretty much, the shuttle was named after a US Navy ship, albeit indirectly.

Re:Shred of dignity

[Somebody Is Using My]

Although if they are so interested in "dignity" and "class", then perhaps they shouldn't use a popularity contest to determine the results (or at least claim to be doing so, if they intend to ignore the results anyway).

The people (or at least the subset of the people who care enough about this to actually vote) made their voice heard. Claiming first that their opinion is worth listening to by holding the contest and then ignoring it when the results don't match their expectations only makes the IAU look doubly foolish.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Although if they are so interested in "dignity" and "class", then perhaps they shouldn't use a popularity contest to determine the results

They didn't.

(or at least claim to be doing so, if they intend to ignore the results anyway).

They didn't do this either. The rules of the naming vote were quite clear: the results would be considered, but would be non-binding.

If you don't like the names they chose, then don't use them. You and your friends are free to call the moons anything you like.

Wrong names

[ArcadeMan]

P4 should obviously have been named "FDIV" and P5 should have been "Core Solo".

Re:

[Type44Q]

I'd suggest NetBurstIntoFlames and Core2Little2Late. :)

Finally they are recognized!

[h4rr4r]

I am glad to finally see Styx get the recognition they deserve. I can't believe took this long though.

Re:Finally they are recognized!

[musth]

Yeah, Rush and Pink Floyd should be next.

Re:

[ackthpt]

Yeah, Rush and Pink Floyd should be next.

Brace yourself, they're probably Journey fans.

Re:

[cpt kangarooski]

Nah, a Stanford Torus style space station would be a better fit for Journey.

Re:

[PPH]

If we are going with the band name theme, I vote for a series based on Zappa/Mothers of Invention.

Dinah, Moe, and Hum?

[Grog6]

That would be a nice name for a set of moons, lol.

Re:

[mill3d]

MoonUnit..?

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re: Finally they are recognized!

[jd2112]

Neal Peart was not the original drummer for Rush. He joined for the second album.

Re:

[danlip]

True, and Ringo was not the original drummer for the Beatles, but it's kinda silly to count it that way.

Re:

[six025]

Pleas don't put Rush in the same thread as Styx and Floyd.

Not to nitpick, but you just put all 3 in the same sentence ;-)

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Moon?

[RDW]

That's no moon, that's a [ FRANCHISE ERROR DETECTED - Resetting]

Don't blame me

[JustOK]

Don't blame me, I voted for Kang.

keep synced

[nedwidek]

So if your system clock is off by more than 5 minutes, does Kerberos disappear?

Re:

[St.Creed]

If your own system clock is off, you disappear. But if the Global Solar Timer (GST) is off by more than 5 celestial minutes, then yes, Kerberos *does* disappear.

Any more questions while I'm here? :)

Some contest

[wcrowe]

1. I agree with the name choices because they make sense...

However...

2. What is the point of having a contest if you're not going to pick the winner?

They should not hold a naming contest if they're just going to pick the names they want anyway.

Re:Some contest

[ArcadeMan]

They should not hold a naming contest if they're just going to pick the names they want anyway.

Sounds like voting in the USA and Canada.

Re:

[Teun]

Indeed, a lack of credible candidates :)

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Because this way, it's democratic. That's how democracy works: the upper class lets you vote for what you want before doing what they want.

Re:Some contest

[westlake]

2. What is the point of having a contest if you're not going to pick the winner?
They should not hold a naming contest if they're just going to pick the names they want anyway.

The IAU makes these decisions.

Showalter's contest was no more than a publicity stunt. That said, the rules were clear.

For two weeks in February, anyone with a computer could vote for their favorite names, or suggest ideas of their own. The caveats: Names needed to represent characters bearing more than just a passing relation to Pluto, the Greek god of the underworld, and must not have already been bestowed upon a celestial solar system object.

The People Have Spoken, and Pluto's Tiny Moons Have Names [wired.com]

Vulcan --- Hephaestus --- god of fire and forge, fails on both counts.

Re:

[steelfood]

1) To solicit new names that may or may not be any good.
2) To whittle the list of contenders down to a few from which they can then ultimately pick.

Re:

[BergZ]

When I look up in the sky I do not want to see 'Urrectum'*!

* I propose that if NASA must name things based on the most popular choice then eventually there will be a celestial body named Urrectum. It is inevitable.

Re:

[Rockoon]

I'm fairly certain that even if NASA continues to pick the names themselves, that eventually they would be left with Urrectum as the best choice.

Good on them

[Dasher42]

Vulcan is Hephaistos, the god of the forge. He has fiery, volcanic imagery, which is why when some astronomers suspected that there might be a planet closer to the Sun than Mercury, Vulcan was the proposed name. Really, Trek fans, a tiny icy moon of Pluto's was not the place to name after Vulcan, no matter how much we like Spock.

Re:

[tverbeek]

As much as I love Star Trek, Vulcan would be a poor name for either of these objects: too cold. Kerberos and Styx are excellent choices to accompany Pluto.

Re:

[sconeu]

Do I need to get a ticket to get to Kerberos? Or a ticket granting ticket?

Re:

[Cro Magnon]

I agree. "Vulcan" would be an illogical choice for such cold places.

Re:

[Krishnoid]

Or if you're going to stick with Trek, Rura Penthe.

Re:

[runeghost]

I absolutely agree and am very happy to see the IAU's decision . I winced every time I saw that one of Pluto's moons was going to be named Vulcan. Pluto's moons should be directly assosciated with darkness and the underworld. Vulcan was inappropriate, not simply for its Trek connections, but because (barring some truly exceptional discoveries by New Horizons) it is inappropriate to name a tiny, icy moon of a dwarf planet after the god of the forge. Save the name, Vulcan, for the first super-heated super-E

Re:

[cpt kangarooski]

Well, let's split the difference, and say that they come from a tiny moon between Spain and France.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[gl4ss]

I'm pretty sure I've seen Styx and Kerberos as hypothetical planets.

However, first they say it's not a planet and then they say it has moons..

*Raises his eyebrow*

[neoshroom]

Vulcan was rejected because it shared its name with a hypothetical planet inside the orbit of Mercury, and also because, as god of the forge, Vulcan had little connection to the icy moons of Pluto.

You are correct. The choice of Vulcan for a name was highly illogical [youtube.com].

QOTD

[Spottywot]

Shatner is sad

Quote of the day.

JJ Abrams....

[tekrat]

I'm surprised he didn't get in on this to further tie his horrendous Star Trek movies to something else (as if Cadillacs, Asus notebooks, Burger king, Pepsi, and some kind of Watch weren't enough)....

Although, according to Abram's "canon"; Vulcan has an icy (but habitable) moon, which is the only way Old Spock and Young Kirk could have witnessed the destruction of Vulcan.

Clearly

[ThatsNotPudding]

Someone had Too Much Time On [Their] Hands

can a non-planet have moons?

[night_flyer]

serious question...

Re:can a non-planet have moons?

[BenSchuarmer]

Pluto is a dwarf planet [wikipedia.org] (a celestial body in direct orbit of the Sun that is massive enough for its shape to be controlled by gravitation, but that unlike a planet has not cleared its orbital region of other objects). The definition doesn't exclude moons.

Re:

[Dr La]

A number of asteroids have moons (most well known pair: (243) Ida and Dactyl). So moons are clearly not restricted to planets.

A new hope for space exploration

[gmuslera]

Can't wait till USA announces an expedition to the outer solar system to hack Kerberos.

Why was Vulcan disqualified?

[joeflies]

Seems like that's a critical part of this story and the reason is not mentioned.

Re:

[kannibal_klown]

I could see for fear of trademark issues.

Obviously the Star Trek owners have been pretty good about that sort of thing in the past, but maybe they just didn't want to risk it.

Or... they're just really big fans of the new continuity and believe there is no longer any Vulcan :-)

Re:

[rossdee]

"I could see for fear of trademark issues."

Seriously? I mean the Roman empire has prior art on Vulcan, so i don't think Paramount has any claim on that name.

And I guess the Mass Effect fans voted for ...

[Ihlosi]

Kerberos, or rather, Cerberus?

Oh, and can't we keep it Roman in this Solar System? We still need the Greek names for the next system.

In Shatners voice:

[wbr1]

Im [pause] mad [pause] Scotty [pause] fire up the warp engines [pause] Uhura hail the IAU [pause] Starfleet [pause] anybody. Well get [pause] a landing party and beam [pause] over [pause] and fix [pause] this.

Re:So sick of popular geek culture.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I'm assuming that I shouldn't come to you with my "They should have named them 'Kerberos' and 'LDAP'" suggestion?

Re:

[instagib]

It coud've been worse. At least it wasn't 'Kansas' and 'REO Speedwagon'.

Speaking of 80's rock, even worse would be a moon named 'Europe'. Oh wait...!

Re:

[SteveFoerster]

Speaking of 80's rock, even worse would be a moon named 'Europe'. Oh wait...!

You definitely want to attempt no landing there!

Re:

[White Flame]

At first I thought this read "So sick of popular _greek_ culture", to which I'd agree. If we're going to draw from mythological names for astronomy, there are plenty to choose from beyond the typical Roman & Greek ones, both modern and ancient.

Re:So sick of popular geek culture.

[Stormwatch]

Indeed. We could call it Jesus. [wikipedia.org]

Re:So sick of popular geek culture.

[maxwell demon]

No, Jesus should clearly become the name of an Asteroid. One that has the chance to once get to earth and terminate life. Then even atheists can talk about how Jesus will come to the world and end it.

Re:

[evilviper]

Jesus is a pretty common hispanic name. You might as well open up the big book of baby names and go to town...

I'm off to planet "Steve"...

Re:So sick of popular geek culture.

[Anonymous Coward]

No let's keep the Greek culture references. The next two moons discovered should be named Taxfraud and Bankruptcy.

Re:

[ArcadeMan]

So what? The names used for celestial bodies all come from somewhere, we're all sick of millennia-old references from Greek culture.

Re:So sick of popular geek culture.

[arth1]

So what? The names used for celestial bodies all come from somewhere, we're all sick of millennia-old references from Greek culture.

The Uranian system doesn't have Greek names - Oberon, Titania, Ariel, Umbriel, Puck, Miranda...

And, of course, the Tellurian system doesn't either.

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

The Uranian system doesn't have Greek names - Oberon, Titania, Ariel, Umbriel, Puck, Miranda...

I heard Miranda [wikia.com] had some sort of terraforming accident, but is pretty quiet now.

Re:So sick of popular geek culture.

[arth1]

I heard Miranda had some sort of terraforming accident, but is pretty quiet now.

Of course it is. It has the right to remain silent.

Re:

[Spottywot]

Fuck off then.

Re:

[wonkey_monkey]

That same with you Big Bang losers. I don't give a crap about your stinking show. Don't mention it to me. I don't want to know anymore about it.

That's weird, the only person I can see mentioning it right now is you, so...

Re:

[sconeu]

You mean that "Denny Crane" guy did something before Boston Legal?

Re:

[cpt kangarooski]

Well, that would explain that creepy incubus.

Re:

[camperdave]

Actually, it has been quite a number of years since Star Trek was on the air. It's quite possible that some of the younger Slashdotters do not know who William Shatner is, or rather, have never seen his portrayal of Captain Kirk. After all, 20 years ago, it was Picard who was at the conn.

Re:

[kannibal_klown]

It's possible for a kid or 20yo to not know about Kirt: if the kid is a teenager and doesn't have cable, and isn't into sci-fi enough to have seen the films it's possible.

It's not very probable, but it's possible.

Heck, I met a kid that was into computers and didn't know about disks larger than a 3.5" floppy. Not that he knew and hadn't seen one before, but thought 3.5" was the only kind ever used.

Re:

[cyberchondriac]

/\ This.
I've always read the 3 headed dog's name as Cerberus.
Or, "Fluffy", from Harry Potter, if you prefer. In hindsight, I think I'll refer to these moons as Styx and Fluffy.

Re:

[pjt33]

Cerberus is the Latin spelling: Kerberos is a transliteration of the Greek.

Re:

[camperdave]

What about calling it Fluffy? I'm sure a lot more people know of Fluffy, the three headed dog than Kerberos, the three headed dog.

Re:

[Antipater]

There's already an asteroid called Cerberus.

Re:

[gmuslera]

It will be in another solar system, in this one there isn't a single planet with intelligent life yet.

Re:

[gmuslera]

They are still here, after all.

Re:

[Molochi]

I'd be fine if they just reserved the name for any planet in the Eridanus systems.

Re:

[mark-t]

When translating it to english, why not just spell it like it sounds, or as close as we can get to it, instead of calling it something that sounds completely different?

Re:

[ElectricTurtle]

Because people won't mangle the pronunciation of "Germany" as often or as badly as the might mangle "Deutschland" for instance. This is why I still say "Burma" instead of "Myanmar". As far as I'm concerned, it's the English word for Myanmar. And if you disagree, I expect you to start calling Sweden "Sverige" immediately.

Re:

[mark-t]

I never suggested I would disagree with specific examples where it doesn't appear to apply, but much more often than not, the name of something in anything other than its original language bears much more than just a passing resemblance to its pronunciation in the original, and when significant variations do exist, they are often still more a consequence of different phonetic structures between two languages than simply a new name assigned to it (your example of Sweden illustrates this, and is a fair Anglic

Re:

[BenSchuarmer]

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune are also Latin.

Re:

[jgtg32a]

Sol is Roman as well

Re:

[mark-t]

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are all Roman dieties... the mythology mixup is only happening because they are using a greek name for one of the moons. If one wants consistency, it'd be a far more straightforward change to just pick a new roman name for the moon than it would be to rename every planet in the solar system.

Re:

[gl4ss]

I can find no reference to Kerberos being an alternate spelling for Cerberus.

here you go. bow to your finnish overlords! (or ancient greeKs who spelt it with K..)
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerberos [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[Antipater]

You must not be looking very hard. Link [wikipedia.org]