Proposed Names for Pluto System’s Features Include Kirk and Spock

For millennia, we’ve inscribed our stories on the canvas of the sky, immortalizing our heroes, gods and monsters in those twinkling stars and meandering planets.

Soon, Pluto and its five enigmatic moons will become the newest tablets for our Earthly tales. And this time, if scientists get their way, some of popular culture’s most beloved characters will take their places among the stars.

Next week, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will fly through the Pluto system and reveal its worlds in startling detail (already, the images are more than intriguing). But the fun really begins once those alien surfaces are unveiled. Not only will scientists be working to understand the complexities of what they’re seeing – they’ll need a way to name all

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