Help Name Surface Features on Pluto and Its Orbiting Satellites

Launched on Jan. 19, 2006, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft already has covered more than 3 billion miles on its journey that has taken it past each planet’s orbit, from Mars to Neptune, in record time. Now it’s in the first stage of an historic encounter with Pluto that includes long-distance imaging, as well as measuring dust, energetic particles and solar wind in the space environment near Pluto.

This encounter will allow scientists to get a better view of the surfaces of Pluto and its orbiting satellites. And the new surface features being discovered will need to be named!

Through April 24, 2015, the public can suggest names for the New Horizons team to use. Submissions must follow a set of accepted themes and guidelines set out by the International Astronomical Union. The IAU is the formal authority for naming celestial bodies. After the campaign concludes, NASA’s New Horizons team will sort through the names and submit its recommendations to the IAU. The IAU will decide whether and how the names will be used.

The campaign allows the public of all ages to submit names for the many new features scientists expect to discover on Pluto following the encounter.

To find out more information about how to participate in the Pluto naming contest, visit http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons.

Detailed IAU guidelines for acceptable names submissions are available online at http://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/#dwarfplanets.

For images and updates on the Pluto flyby set to take place on July 14, 2015, visit http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons  and http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/.