NASA -- There are five new Jupiter moons that have been discovered recently and they all got named over the weekend. When it comes to moons, Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system that boosts of 79 moons, 12 of which have been discovered in early 2017. A team led by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science launched a contest to name five of the moons they've discovered.
"Several rules are followed when it comes to naming newly discovered moons," said Sheppard in a press release by the institution he is connected with. "It becomes even more notable to name the Jovian moons due to its sheer number. Each one has to be named after a Greek or Roman gods and goddesses of Mythology who were consorts or descendants of Zeus or Jupiter."
There are other restrictions too including the fact that every name must be 16 characters or less. Also, the final letter of their names has to correspond to its very direction in the orbit. For example, the moons that fall under the retrograde orbit must have a name that ends in "e" and the ones that are in prograde must end with an "a."
The proposed names for these moons must not contain any form of offensive word in any language family or cultural group. It must also not commemorate or give credit to a living person, among all the other restrictions that come with naming a moon.
The "name the Jovian moon" started in February and ended in April. All the entrees were submitted via Twitter. The platform for submission was particularly interesting as the participants only have 28o characters or less to make a point. As the press release came, it was clearly pointed out that the submissions made disregarded the rules that have been set. The evaluation team from Carnegie Institute of Science had to reject a great number of submissions that blatantly did not follow the rules.
Eventually, the team was able to pick five names, which was later approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The five new names for the Jupiter moons are as follows: Pandia, Ersa, Eirene, Philophrosyne, and Euphene. The moons range in size from 1 to 3 kilometers in diameter. Pandia is considered the largest among all the moons.
There are so many different moons that are waiting to be discovered and named. For now, these five Jovian moons and their new names will last a lifetime. Weird names are always the most popular because they are the ones that truly bring comfort.
