The Pluto Moons

Pluto may no longer be an official planet (it is a dwarf planet), but there are still astronomers studying it.  Recently, two additional mini-moons (for a total of 5) were discovered in orbit around Pluto.  Each is 15-20 miles across.

SETI (the same group searching for extra-terrestrial life) put a survey online asking people to vote for names for these two moons.  William Shatner (Capt. Kirk from Star Trek) suggested the name "Vulcan".  If you are a trekkie or even a casual Star Trek fan, you probably remember that Vulcan was the name of Spock's home planet.  Cool Fact:  In Roman mythology, Vulcan is the nephew of Pluto.

The results are in: Vulcan received 174,000 of the 450,000 total votes.  The second place finisher was Cerberus with 99,000 votes. Leonard Nimoy (Spock) put out a statement in character: 'If my people were emotional they would say they are pleased.'

The ten astronomers who discovered the moons get to name the planets - so they can use the top two results from the survey, or choose something from lower in the survey results, or choose something not even included in the survey.  They are expected to announce their choices in the next couple of months.