Pluto’s moon Charon gets 12 new names sci-fi and mythology geeks will love

Author: Robby Berman / Source: Big Think

There’s only one organization with the “official” ability to name off-Earth objects and places: The International Astronomical Union (IAU). We put “official” in quotes because these are just the names humans give them—to our knowledge, there is no intergalactically sanctioned authority.

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The IAU adorns most of what’s out there—a lot of stuff—mostly with numeric monikers based on a system that uses prefixes to provide various bits of information about the object in addition to giving it a name. What’s popularly known as the Andromeda Galaxy, for example, has two “official” names: M31 and NGC 224. The “M” stands for Messier, signifying that it’s included in the catalog begun by Charles Messier in the late 18th/early 19th century. “NGC” is for its name in the New General Catalog. This month, the IAU approved a set of thought-provoking place names on Pluto’s moon Charon proposed by NASA’s New Horizons team.

But before we get to Pluto’s moon, let’s spend a little time “on” ours. (That’s it. We’re all out of quotation marks now.)

Earth moon names

The names for major lunar features come from Giovanni Battista Riccioli, an astronomer in the 1600s. He named observable features—no dark side could yet be seen—using a few themes, including weather (Sea of Rains), states of mind (Sea of Tranquility), historical names, and, to appease the Catholic Church, some saints were thrown in for good measure.

Riccioli’s moon map (Credit: Wikipedia)

The original names have been tweaked with designations from modern scientists and space programs, and the dark side of the moon has also been mapped. Some of the new names are IAU-official, and some of the more fun ones are informally used by various nations’ space programs as quick shorthand. Who among us wouldn’t wish to observe standing within NASA’s crater Shorty.

Pluto moon names

Here’s a list of the new IAU-sanctioned names on Charon. It’s quite a group.

1. Argo Chasma

Remember the quest for the Golden Fleece in Greek mythology? When Jason and his crew, the aptly named “Argonauts,” departed Iolcos en route for Colchis, the ship they sailed on was the Argo.

(Credit: Sony)

2. Butler Mons

The first science fiction author to win a MacArthur fellowship was Octavia E. Butler in 1995. She wrote a number of cherished books including her Patternist series and Xenogenesis trilogy.