Charon is far and away the largest moon in the network of satellites surrounding Pluto. This frozen body was recently mapped for the first time by the New Horizons spacecraft that passed the dwarf planet on July 14.
The New Horizons mission team has unofficially provided features on the surface of Charon with names, based on famous science fiction enterprises. Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia from George Lucas' famous science-fiction franchise now have features named after them, as does supervillain Darth Vader.
The classic (and most-recently re-booted) Star Trek characters have also earned recognition, at least in the hearts of the New Horizons crew. Impact craters on the surface of Charon are being labeled after Captain James T. Kirk, Mister Spock, Lieutenant Uhura, and Commander Sulu.
Science-fiction writers Arthur C. Clarke and Octavia Butler are also each recognized with informal tributes on a recently released map of Charon. Large chasms on the surface of Pluto's largest moon are being informally titled with names of famous spaceships and vessels from the worlds of science fiction. These include Serenity from the short-lived series Firefly, and Dr. Who's Tardis.
By and large, features on Pluto have been given names of real-life explorers, researchers, and vesssels. However, two features on the dwarf planet itself received names recognizing a pair of fictional monsters – Cthulhu, the villain in many short stories by H.P. Lovecraft, as well as the Balrog, from the Lord of the Rings.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the only body in the world which can assign official names to objects in space. These preliminary names for objects on the surfaces of Pluto and Charon have been submitted to that body for approval.
The proposed names were chosen after a public vote, which received a vast number of suggestions and votes.
"We received so many great suggestions that winnowing down the list was a real challenge. Nevertheless, we limited our proposal to about 10 names in each theme so as not to overwork the IAU nomenclature working group too heavily," the Seti Institute reports on the Our Pluto Web site.
Researchers are just now starting to determine the standards they will adopt for naming features on the four smaller moons of Pluto. Features on Styx will be named after gods of the river, Hydra will be labeled with the names of mythical sea serpents, names of dogs will adorn Kerberos, and Nix will be labeled with the names of gods and goddesses of the night.
New Horizons will continue to send images of its flyby of Pluto and Charon back to Earth for the next 15 months, researchers report.
