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    Two new Pluto moons named, William Shatner not impressed with choices

    What happened to Vulcan?

    Emily Senger
    <p>In 2005, this image from NASA&#8217;s Hubble Space Telescope was used to identify two new moons orbiting Pluto. Pluto is in the center. The moon Charon is just below it. The newly discovered moons, Nix and Hydra, are to the right of Pluto and Charon. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team</p>

    In 2005, this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was used to identify two new moons orbiting Pluto. Pluto is in the center. The moon Charon is just below it. The newly discovered moons, Nix and Hydra, are to the right of Pluto and Charon. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team

    NASA

    The Pluto moons once known as P4 and P5 now have proper names. They are Kerberos and Styx.

    The names are a result of an online campaign back in February 2013, where scientists asked for people to vote on prospective names at plutotrocks.com.

    The two new moons are named for Roman mythology: the three-headed dog guarding the gates of the underworld (Kerberos) and the river souls must cross in the underworld (Styx). They should fit in well with the other three moons: Nix, the goddess of the night; Charon, Nix’s son, the boatman who ferried the dead into the underworld; and Hydra, a nine-headed serpent with poisonous blood.

    The newest Pluto moons were discovered in 2011 and 2012.

    There was speculation that at least one of the moons would be name Vulcan, thanks to a campaign by actor William Shatner. Vulcan was the top name when voting closed. However, when the name Vulcan was submitted to the International Astronomical Union for approval, it ruled that there were all ready too many objects named after Vulcan, reports Wired.

    And, what did William Shatner think of it all? Well, he wasn’t too impressed.

    tags:Pluto