NASA calls for the name of the New Horizons asteroid to call in 2019

NASA came to Pluto in 2015, will continue its journey to 2014 MU 69 in early 2019.

New Horizons is the spaceship that changed our look about. It flew 1.6 billion km to cross the dwarf planet and target new targets in the solar system.

The simulation shows that the New Horizons vessel approached 2014 MU 69 and realized it was two loose objects orbiting each other.(Graphic: Carlos Hernandez / NASA).

The next object that this ship calls is, an inner celestial body. This celestial body obscured a star in the back when watching from the Earth last summer, and that's why it got noticed.

When it obscures the star behind, it reduces the star's brightness. Based on the change in brightness, the analytical scientists found it to have a rather strange shape. With a long shape, it is presumed that it is two single objects that merge together. Each object is about 20km wide.

The simulation shows that two shape cases of 2014 MU 69. It is possible that two grafted objects stick together, or that two loose objects orbiting each other.(Graphics: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI / Alex Parker).

And recently, the SETI Research Institute in Mountain View, California, organized an interesting campaign around this object, inviting the community to give it a name. The idea came from Mark Showalter, a member of SETI and of the New Horizons project.

This program is open to everyone, anyone can participate in naming this strange object. They will close the program on the end of December 1 and the best or most voted name will be selected and officially announced in early 2018.

The chart shows the position of the planets in the Solar System and 2014 MU 69 when New Horizons arrived on January 1, 2019.(Photo: NASA).

Most distant astronomical objects in this belt have no formal names, but only numerical identifiers to record the time it was discovered. The name chosen by SETI is not an official name, as NASA and the International Astronomical Society (IAU) must sit together to meet and name when New Horizons officially flies there.