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In the confines of the solar system, beyond Neptune, a minor planet revolves around the sun in a sea of icy debris.
Humans know the existence of round and reddish object for more than a decade. Since 2007, scientists have estimated its diameter at 775 miles – about half that of Pluto – and probably at its surface with methane.
But they still do not know what to call it.
This week, astronomers who discovered the minor planet said they wanted the public to decide on the chosen name. Offering a choice of three options, they invited anyone to vote on the name it would eventually submit to the International Astronomical Union, which must approve the official name.
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Based on data from the union's Minor Planet Center, astronomers who discovered the minor planet, now called 2007 OR10, believe it is the largest unnamed world in our solar system. The group has designated a total of nearly 525,000 minor planets in our solar system.
Meg Schwamb, an astronomer who started observing the minor planet as a graduate student in her twenties, said she felt that she and other astronomers were finally aware of it. enough on the minor planet to give it a name.
Dr. Schwamb, 34, was working on her thesis at Caltech in 2007 when she and two other astronomers, Mike Brown and David Rabinowitz, conducted a study to find small bodies far from the solar system with a robotic telescope. The telescope took pictures of the same part of the sky over time, allowing scientists to discern moving objects.
Dr. Schwamb said that 2007 OR10 started as a simple point of light on his computer. Over the years, she and other scientists have learned more about the fact that the planet was icy, that she had a moon, and that she was spinning slowly in relation to other objects in the Kuiper Belt. distant ring of icy debris. .
The astronomical team thinks it's probably a dwarf planet, but the astronomical union has not yet designated it as such. A dwarf planet is a celestial body orbiting the Sun, which has enough mass for gravity to make it round and does not erase the neighborhood around its orbit.
"We know enough about it now where we think we can give it a proper name," Dr. Schwamb said during a phone interview.
Dr. Schwamb compared the process to that of parents naming a baby after meeting him. Except that this process of discovering the planet has taken more than a decade.
The caution of astronomers is understandable, given that their first attempt to give an informal nickname to 2007 OR10 was not as effective. In 2011, Dr. Brown wrote in a blog post that they nicknamed the minor planet Snow White, assuming that its surface would be a bright, glossy white.
"But when we went to the telescope to measure it, Snow White was not white," wrote Dr. Brown. "In fact, Snow White is one of the most red objects ever found in the Kuiper Belt."
By choosing the three possibilities for the official name of OR10 2007, astronomers had to adhere to the astronomical union rule that the minor planets of the Kuiper belt with similar orbits must be named after figures mythologies associated with creation.
The first choice mentioned is Gonggong, a Chinese god of water with red hair and snake tail. The second, Holle, is the name of a European goddess of winter associated with Christmas. And the third, Vili, is a Nordic deity who, according to folklore, helped kill a giant to create the universe.
The scientist who discovers a minor planet usually has the opportunity to name it, but Dr. Schwamb said that this baptism was important enough to involve outside observers.
"I wanted a name of that name and I wanted to share it with the rest of the world," she said.
The vote, opened Tuesday, will be closed on May 10th.
Emily Lakdawalla, editor-in-chief of the Planetary Society, who helped to publicize the naming contest, said there was a long list of rules that planetary names had to follow in order to be approved.
Naming minor planets after pets, for example, is frowned upon. And names of people or events associated with political or military history only fit for a century after the death of the person or the occurrence of the event.
Ms. Lakdawalla said that public participation in astronomers' work offers the public a rare chance to participate in space exploration. This has occurred during space shuttle launches and when NASA has released images or sounds extracted from its spacecraft, but these moments are relatively rare.
"It has no impact on the daily lives of most people," she said, "but when that happens, it tends to excite and inspire people."
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