The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is getting close to announcing the official name of (164207) 2004 GU9, one of Earth’s quasi-moons. Members of the public have proposed multiple names for it, and now the public has once again been called upon to help, with the chance to pick the winning one among seven selected by the panel of judges.
2004 GU9 is a potentially hazardous asteroid wider than 160 meters (524 feet) and it will be a quasi-satellite of Earth until around the year 2600. A quasi-satellite is an object that appears to go around the planet from the point of view of the planet but is not gravitationally bound. So, for the next several hundred years, 2004 GU9 will appear around Earth, but then it will fly away like nothing ever happened. Our Moon would never!
Still, given that it’s going to stick around for a long while, we better give it a name. The panel of judges was composed of several astrophysicists such as Dr Sofia Rojas, science communicators such as Moiya McTier, and actors such as Tony Award nominee Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) picked the final seven to pick from.
These names come from the mythology and folklore stories of many different cultures. The IAU has strict requirements for the naming of celestial objects. You couldn’t name one a generic word; your own name; the name of a pet; or a military, political, or business name.
The finalists are the following:
Bakunawa – A mythical dragon from Philippine folklore said to rise from the ocean to swallow the Moon.
Cardea – The Roman goddess of doorways and transition, who guards the thresholds.
Ehaema – The Mother Twilight from Estonian Folklore, symbolizing the balance between light and dark.
Enkidu – The noble companion of Gilgamesh in the eponymous epic from Sumerian mythology.
Ótr – The shape-shifting dwarf of Norse mythology who spent his days in the form of an otter navigating the boundaries between the human realms and the others.
Tarriaksuk – In Inuit legends, these are shadow beings that mirror human forms but dwell in other dimensions.
Tecciztecatl – An Aztec lunar god that once aspired to be Sun but its hesitant leap relegated him to the Moon.
How great are these names?? It’s really difficult to choose one. The voting is open until January 1, and you can vote here.