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Trekkies Vote 'Vulcan' Into the Solar System

Posted by Soulskill on from the live-long-and-prosper dept.

New submitter jollyrgr3 writes "If William Shatner gets his wish, one of Pluto's two new moons will be named Vulcan. The two small moons were discovered recently, and the SETI Institute launched an online poll to let people choose names. Captain Kirk himself suggested the names Vulcan and Romulus. Vulcan was accepted as a candidate, and Shatner exhorted his Twitter followers to vote. Vulcan ended up winning by a landslide, taking 174,000 of the 450,000 total responses. The next highest was Cerberus at just shy of 100,000. The names still have to be approved by the International Astronomical Union, as they have the final say. Leonard Nimoy approves."

10 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. That will just confuse things. by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(hypothetical_planet)

    Vulcan was the name of the hypothetical planet between Mercury and the Sun.

    1. Re:That will just confuse things. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      Vulcan was the name of the hypothetical planet between Mercury and the Sun.

      That made sense because Vulcan was the name of the Roman god of fire. It seems like an odd name for a moon frozen at 43K (-230C).

    2. Re:That will just confuse things. by guises · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You can't name moons after gods anyway, it's against the convention. Planets get named after gods. Cerberus is the more appropriate name.

  2. Re:FU Trekkie geeks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't you mean Kashyyyk and Endor?

  3. Hrm by Jarnin · · Score: 4, Informative

    While I'm a huge fan of Star Trek and Astronomy in general, I don't think a moon of Pluto should be called Vulcan. Why? The name "Vulcan" is from Roman mythology, and is the name of the Roman god of fire and volcanos. Last I checked, Pluto and it's moons were too far away from the Sun to have any connection to fire and volcanos. In other words, Pluto's moons are too far outside of the system to make the name "Vulcan" appropriate. I hope the IAU has the sense to name this moon after something that fits contextually.

    Now if they'd discovered that Mercury had a moon, Vulcan would be the obvious choice!

  4. these moons have been hard to find by ozduo · · Score: 5, Funny

    so please call one "G spot"

    --
    I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
  5. Downgraded from fiction to reality by mynameiskhan · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess now it is being downgraded to a moon of a former planet.

  6. Since there's new Star Trek Movies by Roman+Coder · · Score: 4, Funny

    In keeping with the new Star Trek movies, they should be called "Lens" and "Flare".

    --
    "The future can only affect the present if there is room to write its influence off as a mistake." - Yakir Aharonov
  7. Re:Meh. by Dins · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So start submitting articles...

  8. Re:FU Trekkie geeks by DarthStrydre · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't you mean the forest moon of Endor? I understand that the moon and the planet it orbited (long long ago) had the same name colloquially, but if we must be pedants, let us be truly pedantic.