Vulcan Hammers the Competition

Vulcan and Cerberus will be the names of Pluto’s P4 and P5 moons if voters have their way – something that is by no means guaranteed.

There were 450,324 votes cast before Pluto Rocks closed the polls on February 25. The site’s bar graph makes it hard to tell the exact count, but Vulcan clearly led all contenders, receiving well over 150,000 votes.

Cerberus had around 100,000 votes.

Just three other names — Styx, Persephone and Orpheus – got over 50,000 votes.

“It could take 1-2 months for the final names of P4 and P5 to be selected and approved,” said Mark Showalter of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute, on behalf of the P4/P5 Discovery Team.

Vulcan was added to the official ballot after receiving many write-in votes from people acting on a suggestion made by William Shatner.