The most recently discovered moons don't have a name yet

Feb 11, 2013 18:21 GMT  ·  By

Pluto may no longer be a planet, but it still has more moons than us. In fact, the fourth and fifth moons were only discovered recently and don't even have a name yet. It's been seven months since the last moon was discovered and the team that made the discovery thinks it's about time it gets christened.

The moons have been called P4 and P5 so far. A number of options have been pre-selected, all stemming from Roman and Greek mythology and all having to do with Hades and the Underworld, since Pluto was the ruler of the Underworld in Greek mythology.

You can vote on which ones you like the most, but you can also provide your own suggestions if you think you can come up with something better. You have until February 25 to do so.

"In 1930, a little girl named Venetia Burney suggested that Clyde Tombaugh name his newly discovered planet 'Pluto.' Tombaugh liked the idea and the name stuck," Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute, who discovered P5, wrote.

"I like to think that we are doing honor to Tombaugh's legacy by now opening up the naming of Pluto's two tiniest known moons to everyone," he added.

So far, the suggested names are Acheron, Alecto, Cerberus, Erebus, Eurydice, Hercules, Hypnos, Lethe, Obol, Orpheus, Persephone and Styx, but more may be added if there are interesting suggestions.

"We need to choose two names from Greek mythology related to Hades and the underworld. The Greeks were great storytellers and the 'Minions of Hades' are a colorful cast of characters. We have picked out a few of our favorite names to get the voting started, but if you have a better idea, let us know and we might add it to the ballot!," Showalter added.

There are guarantees that the names voted will be the ones picked, but the SETI team promised to use the results of the vote and the suggestions when making their naming proposal to the International Astronomical Union.