The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the internationally recognized authority for naming celestial bodies and their surface features, has officially approved the naming of 14 features on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto.
Pluto’s first official surface-feature names are marked on this map, compiled from images and data gathered by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its flight through the Pluto system in 2015. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / Ross Beyer.
“The approved designations honor many people and space missions who paved the way for the historic exploration of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the most distant worlds ever explored,” said New Horizons principal investigator Dr. Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute.
“We’re very excited to approve names recognizing people of significance to Pluto and the pursuit of exploration as well as the mythology of the underworld,” added Dr. Rita Schulz, chair of the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.
“These names highlight the importance of pushing to the frontiers of discovery.”
The approved Pluto surface feature names are listed below:
Adlivun Cavus is a deep depression named for Adlivun, the underworld in Inuit mythology.
Al-Idrisi Montes honors Ash-Sharif al-Idrisi (1100–1165/66), a noted Arab mapmaker and geographer whose landmark work of medieval geography is sometimes translated as ‘The Pleasure of Him Who Longs to Cross the Horizons.’
Burney crater honors Venetia Burney (1918–2009), who as an 11-year-old schoolgirl suggested the name ‘Pluto’ for Clyde Tombaugh’s newly-discovered planet. Later in life she taught mathematics and economics.
Djanggawul Fossae defines a network of long, narrow depressions named for the Djanggawuls, three ancestral beings in indigenous Australian mythology who traveled between the island of the dead and Australia, creating the landscape and filling it with vegetation.
Elliot crater recognizes James Elliot (1943–2011), an MIT researcher who pioneered the use of stellar occultations to study the Solar System — leading to discoveries such as the rings of Uranus and the first detection of Pluto’s thin atmosphere.
Hayabusa Terra is a large land mass saluting the Japanese spacecraft and mission (2003–2010) that returned the first asteroid sample.
Sleipnir Fossa is named for the powerful, eight-legged horse of Norse mythology that carried the god Odin into the underworld.
Sputnik Planitia is a large plain named after Sputnik 1, the first space satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.
Tartarus Dorsa is a ridge named for Tartarus, the deepest, darkest pit of the underworld in Greek mythology.
Tenzing Montes and Hillary Montes are mountain ranges honoring Tenzing Norgay (1914–1986) and Sir Edmund Hillary (1919–2008), the Indian/Nepali Sherpa and New Zealand mountaineer who were the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest and return safely.
Tombaugh Regio honors Clyde Tombaugh (1906–1997), the U.S. astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930 from Lowell Observatory in Arizona.
Virgil Fossae honors Virgil, one of the greatest Roman poets and Dante’s fictional guide through hell and purgatory in the Divine Comedy.
Voyager Terra honors the pair of NASA spacecraft, launched in 1977, that performed the first ‘grand tour’ of all four giant planets.
