Name A Crater! NASA Asks The Public For Help Naming Mercury Craters
NASA is looking to name five craters found on Mercury. However, instead of having NASA scientists name the craters, NASA is opening voting and name suggestions to the public.
Discovery reports that NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft is coming to the end of its mission. In honor of the mission’s achievements, NASA, teams at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Carnegie Institution for Science are giving people around the world a chance to name a Mercury crater.
NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft first began orbiting Mercury in March of 2011. Discovery says that the spacecraft was able to capture over 260,000 images and traveled eight billion miles over the course of its journey. NASA reports that the spacecraft surpassed its mission objectives.
“MESSENGER has far surpassed its mission objectives, successfully mapping the entire surface of Mercury and returning the most comprehensive data ever obtained on our solar system’s innermost planet.”
With so much success, it only seems fitting that they would commemorate the event with a public ceremony of sorts. That is where the crater naming project came into play. Once the names are selected through the public voting process, they will become official through the International Astronomical Union.
Before you run out to vote, know that there is a caveat to the naming process.
“The rules of the contest are simple: names suggested must follow the IAU’s accepted policy for crater names on Mercury to be after “deceased artists, musicians, painters, and authors who have made outstanding or fundamental contributions to their field and have been recognized as art historically significant figures for more than 50 years.” In addition the person referred to by the name must have been deceased for at least three years and have no other feature in the solar system already named after them (or even have a similar name, regardless of the individual reference).”
The contest will close on January 15, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. However. the names will not be announced until later. The announcement is scheduled to coincide with MESSENGER’s end of mission date which will occur at the end of March or beginning of April 2015. For full rules and to submit your crater name suggestion, check out the official Mercury crater naming website.
Do you plan to submit your suggestion to NASA? What names would you like to see included in the Mercury crater naming project? What do you think about the policy that Mercury craters must be named after deceased artists, musicians, painters or authors?
