With the nes period findings, the NH mission disign still remains rather uncomplicated with regards to satellite placement during the flyby. Granted the configuration of the satellites does not repeat exactly every ~70 days or so, with the near resonance exhibited, the 2 new sats will still be constrained in their posible positions. (working this out in my head) it seems the sats will be slightly short of their last position every ~70 days. (imagine the whole system lining up slightly earlier every time the objects 'reclock')

For an apparently narrow range of possible arrival dates (assuming a nominal launch, evaluating the arrival dates consistent with Pluto and Charon optimal positions for good views of the new satellites still should not devolve to a plethora of possibilities.

New paper:

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601018 - The Discovery of Two New Satellites of Pluto

Our discovery team is beginning to debate names. Suggestions for P1 and P2 are welcome. Here are
some groundrules: the names must come from Roman mythology and they must have a logical
connection to one another and to either Pluto or Charon (or both).

-Alan

Cerberus and Orthrus?

The five rivers of the underworld are mentioned in the Aeneid: Acheron, Phlegethon, Styx, Cocytus, and Lethe. Styx and Acheron are traditionally associated with Charon. That leaves you with three more names in case new moons are discovered.

Well, to get some discussion going, here are some possibilities and non-possibilities:

Names already taken by asteroids or KBOs:

6239 Minos
38083 Rhadamanthus
1865 Cerberus (darn!!!)
3361 Orpheus
75 Eurydike

Names that don't seem to be taken yet:

Aeacus (unpronounceable)
Styx
Tartarus
Erebus
Hecate
Thanatos

Myself, I like "Thanatos" for one of them. (Thanatos was more or less the Grim Reaper of Greek mythology.) Perhaps Tartarus and Erebus ought to be kept in reserve to be used as names of features on Pluto. Maybe Styx as well, thought it's difficult to imagine that any rivers will be found there.

[Edit: "Orthrus" seems to be open. Too bad about Cerberus being taken -- Cerberus and Orthrus would've been perfect.]

There's at least one overlaps between moons and asteroids: for example, 593 Titania and the moon of Uranus. Are these grandfathered or something?

Probably... there's also an asteroid called Europa and it's one of the early ones.

There's a Ganymed, too, but that's different because it has a different spelling than Ganymede.

(While hunting through the asteroid list, I was pleased to discover four named after Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!)

Probably "Tityas" would be appropriate, too. He was a Titan-like figure sent as a prisoner to Tartarus, Pluto's realm, as a punishment for having tried to rape Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis.

"Phlegeton" is considered to be the river that forms the border of Tartarus. It is the "river of fire" and was supposed to burn without consuming fuel. Others describe it as beeing made of boiling blood. So the color red would possibly fit P2.

Rob has already listed the other names that came to my mind, too.

Michael

Or as potential names for 2003 UB313...

These are perfect names for large Kuiper Belt objects.

Yes, alternate spellings for kids names is quite trendy these days - note that there are at least 155 ways to spell Caitlin. Why couldn't this work for solar system bodies?

Serberus
Aurfeeus
Mynohs



Any chance the IAU could be convinced to allow Cerberus and Orpheus to be doubled as well? I mean, technically the asteroids come with a number first...

I would be very disappointed if one of the moons isn't named Cerberus, despite the fact an asteroid has the same name (lest we for get 85 Io, 52 Europa, 55 Pandora, 106 Dione, 1810 Epimetheus, and 4450 Pan, just to name a few). I second Orthrus as well, though I other than being a brother of Cerberus, I can't find a connection to Pluto/Hades (my Greek mythology here coming from Wikipedia though).

It's just EE-uh-kuss. Not so bad. Orthrus is more nearly a tongue-twister!

Perhaps all trans-Plutonian planets should be called names starting with 'P', and their satellites should all have names starting with 'C'...

Bob Shaw

Cerberus had a BROTHER? What happened? Did he flunk Obedience School or something?