granthutchison wrote:IAU Circular 8723 has just arrived, giving names for the new Plutonians.
Further to IAUC 8648, the IAU Working Group for Planetary
System Nomenclature has approved the following new designations and
names of satellites of Pluto:
Pluto II Nix = S/2005 P 2
Pluto III Hydra = S/2005 P 1
Grant
Thx, Grant, When I've read this info from the Pluto Mission News today [quote]The names Nix and Hydra have been approved for the two small satellites of Pluto discovered in May 2005. The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies, approved the names this week.
A team of researchers from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colo., the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., used Hubble Space Telescope images to make the discovery in support of NASA?€™s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt beyond.
?€?We?€™re very pleased with the decision of the IAU,?€