Pluto's two smallest moons have finally received names, following approval by the International Astronomical Union.
Pluto's two moons, previously referred to as "P4" and "P5," are now named Kerberos and Styx, the SETI Institute.
Kerberos, of course, is the name of the three-headed dog in Greek mythology, while Styx is the name of the river that separates the world of the living from the realm of the dead.
The names of the two new moons perfectly match Pluto's other natural satellites, which are named Charon, Nix, and Hydra.
Kerberos was discovered in 2011, while Styx was confirmed in 2012. To name these two moons, an Internet vote was held that received approximately 500,000 votes.
“We were overwhelmed by the public response to the naming campaign,” said Dr. Mark Showalter, senior research scientist at the SETI Institute.
However, Kerberos and Styx only took second and third place from the top, while Vulcan won the race. And probably because this sentence is associated with the name of Mr. Spock's home planet in Star Trek.
However, “Hephaestus” [Vulcan] was impossible to give because it is already used in astronomy.
