A weird "quasi-moon" of Earth is about to get a name — and you can be part of the process.
Earlier this year, the science podcast Radiolab and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the organization that assigns official names to celestial bodies and their surface features — announced a contest to name the asteroid (164207) 2004 GU9.
That 500-foot-wide (150 meters) space rock is one of our planet's quasi-moons — a temporary companion that's orbiting the sun in a path similar to that of Earth. 2004 GU9 will likely be with us for about 600 more years, then shoot away into the dark and empty depths of space.
The naming contest has now reached a new and exciting stage: A panel of experts, including TV "Science Guy" Bill Nye, has picked seven finalists from a pool of nearly 3,000 monikers, which were submitted by people in more than 90 countries.
Related: Zoozve — the strange 'moon' of Venus that earned its name by accident
IAU conventions require that the names of cosmic objects be connected to one of the many mythologies developed by people around the globe. The seven finalists, and their cultural origins, are:
- Bakunawa (Filipino)
- Cardea (Roman)
- Ehaema (Estonian)
- Enkidu (Sumerian)
- Ótr (Norse)
- Tarriaksuk (Inuit)
- Tecciztecatl (Aztec)
“How lucky are we that we get to name something in space that will outlive us all?!" Radiolab co-host Latif Nasser said in an emailed statement. "We paired up with the International Astronomical Union to make sure that anyone in the whole world can vote and hopefully find some wonder and inspiration along the way. Narrowing down the thousands of submissions was hard, but I can't wait to see which name the world chooses!"
You can learn more about the finalist names, and vote for your choice, at the contest homepage. Voting will run through Jan. 1, 2025.
The judges who picked the seven finalist names include (but are not limited to):
- Bill Nye, science communicator and CEO of The Planetary Society, a space-exploration advocacy organiziation
- Penn Badgley, actor and producer, known for roles on "Gossip Girl" and "You"
- Celia Rose Gooding, actor who plays Nyota Uhura on "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds"
- Jacob Pinter, producer and co-host of NASA’s "Curious Universe" podcast
- Moiya McTier, astrophysicist, author and host of the "Exolore" and "Pale Blue Pod" podcasts
- Salman Hameed, science educator and founder and CEO of Kainaat Studios
- Sofia Rojas, postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles
- Wanda Diaz Merced, astrophysicist and pioneer in sonification, which turns datasets into audible sound
- Sean Carroll, author and theoretical physicist; Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University
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