Vulcan, Spock's homeworld, to be pinpointed around Pluto


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The votes are in, and it looks like 'Vulcan' could be the new name for one of Pluto's smallest moons.

After weeks of online ballot casting by people around the world, the poll asking the public to name two of Pluto's moons ? currently called P4 and P5 ? ended Monday, Feb. 25.

As of 12 p.m. (1700 GMT), the polls closed with a total of 450,324 total votes cast since Feb. 11 with 'Vulcan,' a Pluto moon name proposed by Star Trek's William Shatner, the clear winner.

"174,062 votes and Vulcan came out on top of the voting for the naming of Pluto's moons. Thank you to all who voted! MBB," wrote Shatner via Twitter.

Cerberus came in a clear second with nearly 100,000 votes.

Vulcan is the Roman god of lava and smoke, and the nephew of Pluto.

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Doesn't make sense to name it Vulcan unless the moon has heavy magma activity. The planet was called Pluto because of its coldness, and although in some traditions hell is portrayed as hot, it was typically portrayed as cold in Greek myth.

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I thought they named some '10th planet' beyond Pluto, years ago ...

NASA-Funded Scientists Discover Tenth Planet

July 29, 2005

A planet larger than Pluto has been discovered in the outlying regions of the solar system.

The planet was discovered using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, Calif. The discovery was announced today by planetary scientist Dr. Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., whose research is partly funded by NASA.

The planet is a typical member of the Kuiper belt, but its sheer size in relation to the nine known planets means that it can only be classified as a planet, Brown said. Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth, the planet is the farthest-known object in the solar system, and the third brightest of the Kuiper belt objects.

"It will be visible with a telescope over the next six months and is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in the constellation Cetus," said Brown, who made the discovery with colleagues Chad Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., on January 8.

http://www.jpl.nasa....elease=2005-126

Former ?10th planet? officially named Eris

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/14825585/#.USwPPWfjLNE

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The Romans regarded Jupiter as the equivalent of Greek Zeus, and in Latin literature and Roman art, the myths and iconography of Zeus are adapted under the name Iuppiter. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Jupiter was the brother of Neptuneand Pluto.

OK. I get it now. Jupiter is vulcans father, Pluto is Jupiter's brothers.

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