I was wondering whether there is a way of proposing names for Mercurian features. Or perhaps someone within the MESSENGER team may read this.
I have long been fascinated with Mongolia and Mongolian culture and I noticed that, while names given to features of Mercury strive to recognize artists and poets of as many cultures worldwide, there is none dedicated to the Mongolian "Michelangelo of Asia", the monk, artist, philosopher and politician Zanabazar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanabazar
Names can be proposed through the IAU (http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/FeatureNameRequest), but there has to be a specific scientific reason for the request. Alas, they also don't always go with your suggestion even if you do follow their naming scheme...I've proposed names for multiple craters on Mars that fit their rules, and they did end up giving all the craters names—but none of them were the names I had suggested.
Paolo, to expand on tharrison's point, the 'scientific reason' is not about the name you choose but the object you assign it to - names are 'needed' if the object is likely to be referred to frequently in the literature, as a name is more memorable than saying 'the 25 km diameter crater at --- lat., --- long.' For instance, some craters on Mercury have strange bright or dark patches inside them, or unusual ejecta. Some contain irregular pits which may be volcanic vents. So naming them makes sense, they are likely to be talked about. Similarly, names near future landing sites on other worlds are likely to be needed as well.
Just suggesting one name may be unlikely to go anywhere. But providing a list of twenty names from 'under-represented cultures' - with suitable biographic information and published sources - might be found to be very useful by the people doing the naming work.
I have also tried and failed to have names accepted!
Phil
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