Two new Pluto moons named by the International Astronomical Union

Pluto’s two new moons formerly known as S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2, have been named Hydra and Nix by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the recognized authority for assigning names to celestial bodies. The announcement was made 21 June 2006 in IAU Circular 8723. The two moons were discovered with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 2005.

Oddbjørn Engvold, General Secretary for the International Astronomical Union, says: “I am very pleased with the decision of the IAU Planetary System Nomenclature Working Group”.

Kaare Aksnes, President of the IAU Planetary System Nomenclature Working Group, states: “In Greek mythology, Nyx is the goddess of the night, but since asteroid 3908 already bears the Greek name Nyx, we changed Nyx to its Egyptian equivalent, Nix. Hydra was a nine-headed serpent with poisonous blood that had its den at the entrance to Hades, where Pluto and his wife Persephone entered the Underworld.”

The IAU is working on an official definition of the term “planet”, which will be discussed at the IAU General Assembly in Prague 14-25 August, 2006.

Oddbjørn Engvold
General Secretary
International Astronomical Union, Paris, France
Phone: +33 (0) 1 43 25 83 58
E-mail: oddbjorn.engvold@astro.uio.no

Kaare Aksnes
President IAU Planetary System Nomenclature Working Group
Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Norway
Tel: +47-22-85-65-15
E-mail: kaare.aksnes@astro.uio.no

Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Working Group for Communicating Astronomy with the Public
Hubble/ESA, Garching, Germany
Tel: +49-(0)89-3200-6306
Cellular: +49-(0)173-3872-621
E-mail: lars@eso.org

The IAU Web page: http://www.iau.org