'Star Trek' Inspired 'Vulcan' Leads Online Poll for new Pluto Moon Name

First Posted: Feb 23, 2013 03:46 PM EST
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Star Trek fans may soon all be celebrating as "Vulcan", a fictional planet from the popular series inhabited by Spock, is the leading contender in an online vote to name two of Pluto's recently discovered moons.

So far, Vulcan has over 140,000 of some 370,000 votes cast in the online poll. Pluto's two new moons, discovered in 2011 and 2012, are, as of now, known only by "P4" and "P5."

The "Pluto Rocks" voting is due to conclude at 12 pm EST on Feb. 15 Monday and will be followed by a 1 p.m. Google+ Hangout sponsored by the SETI Institute.  The poll is being run by the Seti Institute and Dr Mark Showalter, who led the scientific team behind the discovery of P4 and P5.

Pluto lost its title as a planet in 2006 after scientists reassessed the definition of a planet. Since then it is considered a "dwarf planet," because it is too small to be considered a planet. Pluto has five moons, three of which already have names; Charon, Hydra and Nix. All three names are both borrowed from Greek and Roman mythology.

The name "Vulcan" was added to the online poll by Star Trek actor William Shatner, who portrayed the Enterprise's captain James Kirk. He also asked for "Romulus" to be added to the list of names, but was rejected because it was already in use as names for the moons of the asteroid 87 Silvia.

Shatner is using his star power to encourage more votes for "Vulcan". He tweeted: "Just a few more days of voting left for Vulcan https://PlutoRocks.com  MBB," on Friday.

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