On New Year's Day, NASA's "New Horizons" probe is going to encounter an oddly-shaped ice-covered object at the very edge of the solar system, making it the most distant object ever explored by a spacecraft. The problem is... it doesn't have a nice, easy-to-say name. Its only name right now is the catalogue number "(486958) 2014 MU69", which the guy in charge of the New Horizons project calls a "license plate designator". So NASA has decided to crowdsource a name for it that will roll trippingly off the newsfeed.
You can nominate a name here or vote for an existing suggestion here. To avoid another "Boaty McBoatface", they're not going to be blindly taking the one with most votes, but will review some small number of the top vote-getters and pick from them.
If you want to read more about this, there's this Washington Post article, if you haven't used up your free views from them yet this month.
You can nominate a name here or vote for an existing suggestion here. To avoid another "Boaty McBoatface", they're not going to be blindly taking the one with most votes, but will review some small number of the top vote-getters and pick from them.
If you want to read more about this, there's this Washington Post article, if you haven't used up your free views from them yet this month.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....