The International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced the names of the fourth and fifth moons of Pluto Tuesday, and Trekkies around the world will be disappointed.
Despite an effort headed by William Shatner — Captain Kirk of the original Star Trek television series — neither of the newly discovered moons will hold the name of Vulcan. Instead the names will be Kerberos and Styx.
The ubiquitous star expressed his disappointment about Vulcan being passed over for one of the names.
The two names were chosen from classical mythology, which is consistent with the other names of moons around Pluto: Charon, Nix and Hydra.
The leader of the research team, Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute, called for a public vote to suggest names for the small moons. The names had to hold reference to the underworld.
Vulcan, Cerberus and Styx finished in the one-two-three spot and the names were submitted to the IAU. However, Vulcan had already been used for a hypothetical planet between Mercury and the Sun. Though no such planet exists, the term “vulcanoid” is still used for any asteroid that exists within the orbit of Mercury. As well, Vulcan did not relate to the underworld. For these reasons, the IAU chose to omit the name. Kerberos is the Greek name for Cerberus, which is already attached to an asteroid.
The new moons were discovered in 2011 and 2012, during observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope.
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