Pluto's Smallest Moons Get Named, Top Vote Getter 'Vulcan' Snubbed

Pluto might no longer be a planet, but scientists have uncovered five moons orbiting the long-distance satellite. The smallest two, previously known as P4 and P5, have finally gotten official names.

The moon P4 is now dubbed Kerberos, and P5 is Styx. Both moons join Charon, Nix and Hydra to round out Pluto's five. The names were selected by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) from submissions garnered through an online public vote at https://plutorocks.seti.org.

"I was overwhelmed by the public response to the naming campaign," said Dr. Mark Showalter, who led the SETI Institute's researchers who discovered Kerberos in 2011 and Styx in 2012.

Kerberos is the Greek name for Cerberus, the three-headed dog, while Styx is the river that separates the living world from the underworld.

Sadly, it looks like the top vote getter was left out. Legions of Star Trek fans led by Captain James T. Kirk (better known to us as William Shatner) made the name "Vulcan" the most popular submission, tallying 174,000 of the 450,000 total responses. Vulcan is the name of the home planet of Spock, a popular Star Trek character played by Leonard Nimoy.

"The IAU gave serious consideration to this name, which happens to be shared by the Roman god of volcanoes. However, because that name has already been used in astronomy, and because the Roman god is not closely associated with Pluto, this proposal was rejected," reads a SETI press release.

Pluto's moons' names are usually associated with the underworld of Greek and Roman mythologies and Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and volcanoes.

In response, Shatner tweeted:

They didn't name the moon Vulcan. I'm sad.

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 2, 2013

There may be some consolation for Trekkies, however, as Shatner followed up that tweet with another:

Did you hear the consolation? They may name a crater after Kirk. A pockmark on a planetoid is a fitting tribute? (Rolling my eyes) — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 2, 2013

The IAU is the same body that removed Pluto's tag as a planet back in 2006, reclassifying it as a dwarf planet instead and reducing the number of planets in our solar system to eight. 

What do you think of the new names for Pluto's moons? Let us know in the comments below.