You can now help give a new nickname to the next flyby target of NASA's New Horizons mission, 2014 MU69

NASA’s New Horizons mission is flying towards its next flyby target in the outer reaches of the Solar System. The Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) is over 6.5 billion kilometeres from the Earth, and about 782 kilometers beyond Pluto, which the New Horizons mission also visited and photographed. The spacecraft is scheduled to visit the object on 1 January, 2019, and the flyby will be the most distant in the history of human space exploration. [caption id=“attachment_4196745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] An illustration of New Horizons at the flyby target. Image: NASA.[/caption] The object has a rather mundane name, 2014 MU69 and NASA is asking for help in coming up with a more exciting name for the object. Interested readers can vote on a current list of candidates , or nominate their own name. The current list includes Thor’s Hammer Mjölnir, Peanut and Camelor, a fictional city in the Kuiper belt appearing in Robert L Forward’s novel, Camelot 30K. For those who want to nominate their own names , there are some guidelines. Names with political or religious significance are not accepted, but names from mythologies are. Names that have commercial value will also not be considered. 2014 MU69 may actually be a contact binary , or a pair of objects in close proximity to each other. In this case, once the spacecraft gets to the object, it may require two names instead of one. For this reason, NASA is looking for multiple name nominations. The names that are evocative of the cold and remote nature of the body, as well as its shape are the most likely to be picked. Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator says, “New Horizons has always been about pure exploration, shedding light on new worlds like we’ve never seen before. Our close encounter with MU69 adds another chapter to this mission’s remarkable story. We’re excited for the public to help us pick a nickname for our target that captures the excitement of the flyby and awe and inspiration of exploring this new and record-distant body in space.” The chosen name will at first be an informal designation. Several objects in the Kuiper Belt had informal names before official ones were proposed. Once the spacecraft actually reaches the body, and learns more about its shape and composition, NASA will work with the International Astronomical Union to assign a formal name to the object. The deadline for submitting nominations or votes is 1 December, 2017. NASA will announce the nickname of the body in January 2018.