February 27, 2013

The name “Vulcan” was a surprise co-winner in the “Pluto Rocks” online contest in which the public was asked to help choose names for two moons recently discovered orbiting Pluto. “Vulcan,” which was not on the original ballot, was a write-in candidate suggested by actor William Shatner, who starred in the “Star Trek” science-fiction television and film series. “Vulcan” collected 174,062 of the 450,324 votes cast. “Cerberus,” the name of the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to the underworld in Greek and Roman mythology, came in second, with nearly 100,000 votes. The contest was organized by astronomers with the SETI Institute, who found the moons in 2011 and 2012 using the Hubble Space Telescope. SETI is a research organization that searches for life in the universe beyond Earth.

Canadian-born actor William Shatner gained fame as Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise in the television science-fiction series "Star Trek" (1966-1969). (© Paramount/The Kobal Collection)

The ballot for the “Pluto Rocks” contest originally included 12 names from Greek and Roman mythology associated with the underworld, also known as Hades. Pluto was the god of the dead in Roman mythology. He was almost identical to Hades, the Greek god of the dead. The SETI scientists agreed to add “Vulcan” to the ballot after Shatner promoted the name on Twitter. In Roman mythology, Vulcan was the god of fire, metalworking, and skilled craftwork in general. Although he did not dwell in Hades, he was a nephew of Pluto and was believed to have his blacksmith’s forge beneath Mount Etna in Sicily. Coincidentally, Vulcan was the name of the fictional home planet of Spock, the half-human first officer to Shatner’s Captain James T. Kirk.

Leonard Nimoy played the alien Mr. Spock in the "Star Trek" science-fiction television series and motion pictures. (NBC-TV/The Kobal Collection)

The SETI astronomers will now recommend the winning names to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which determines the names of celestial bodies. The IAU, which is not required to accept the winning names, was expected to announce the new moons’ official names sometime this spring.

Additional World Book articles:

• New Horizons
• Space exploration
• Exploring the Suburban Solar System (a special report)
• Astronomy 1930 (Back in Time article)
• Astronomy 1978 (Back in Time article)
• Astronomy 2006 (Back in Time article)
• Space exploration 2006 (Back in Time article)