Here we are again. I feel like a broken record, but I have no choice.
Someone is turning to the internet to name something and it’s someone that should know better, because they’re super smart!
NASA – the same folks that put us in space, put us on the moon, and have sent probes all over our solar system – they’re asking the same people who wanted to name a boat “Boaty McBoatface” to help them name an object 4 billion miles away.
This is it (kinda). This is an artist’s conception of what this thing looks like.
You’ll remember NASA’s New Horizons probe zipped past Pluto (It’s still a planet to me, damn it!) in 2015. Well it’s still going and in two years it will fly by past this thing,
and NASA says it needs a name.
Actually it already has a name. It needs a good name. Right now they call it 2014 MU69 (Potentially also my license plate). That’s a stupid name. They need something a little more relatable.
So they are asking for your help.
But wait, wait – NASA is smart!
They’ve set it up so they will avoid a “Space Rock McSpace Rockface” situation. They’ve learned from others’ mistakes.
NASA will take your stupid suggestion, but ultimately they will have the final say.
However, they at least seem open to something a little less traditional. These are some of the names you can vote for right now.
- Z’ha’dum (fictional planet at the edge of the galaxy)
- Año Nuevo (“New Year” in Spanish)
- Camalor (fictional city in the Kuiper Belt)
- Uluru (Ayers Rock, largest rock on Earth, an “island mountain”)
- Chomolungma, Sagarmatha (names of Mt. Everest in Tibet and Nepal)
- Sagittarius (constellation behind MU69/mythical centaur)
- Pluck & Persistence (traits of New Horizons)
- Pangu (first being in Chinese mythology, emerged from yin and yang)
- Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer)
- Kibo, Mawenzi, Shira (peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro)
- Peanut, Almond, Cashew (shapes for small bodies)
But you see other than the nuts, many of these are too hard to pronounce.
So I’m throwing this out there, and this is a 100 percent true story.
When I was a kid, probably 12-years-old, I looked up at the Moon one night and I thought, “The moon doesn’t have a name does it?”
All of the other planets and moons in our solar system have names, but ours is just “The Moon.”
So little Cory wrote a letter to NASA and asked about it, and if it didn’t have a name, if I could name it.
My suggestion?
“Steve.”
Think about it. It’s simple and easy to remember.
You’d go out on a clear summer night, look up at Steve and say “Man, Steve is full and bright tonight!*
NASA never wrote me back.
So I’ll throw it out again – MU69, out by Pluto, vote for Steve.
If you don’t like “Steve,” and think you have a better name, you can submit nominations here, and vote for nominations here (Again, vote for Steve.)
Cory Howard 