Let’s Name MU69 After One Of Earth’s Greatest Challenges

NASA and the SETI Institute are about to complete a competition wherein people get to suggest names for MU69 – the distant body that New Horizons will fly by in January 2019.
Among the top choices right now are Chomolungma ??????????? and Sagarmatha ??????? – the original Tibetan and Nepali names for Mt. Everest. These names were nominated by someone living in Kathmandu, Nepal.

MU69 represents the the most distant world in our solar system that humans will likely visit for another decade or more. As such it represents the acme – the pinnacle – of robotic spacecraft exploration. There are already two features on Pluto named after the first two humans to stand atop Everest/Chomolungma/Sagarmatha – Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. As such, it would be fitting and in keeping with the spirit and adventure to name MU69 (which may be a double object) Chomolungma and/or Sagarmatha.

You can visit the naming website at http://www.frontierworlds.org/home and vote for Chomolungma/Sagarmatha (or other choices).

The campaign closes at noon Pacific Time (20:00 GMT) on December 1, 2017.

The campaign has been extended until 6 December 2017