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Space & Planetary Science

The Real Origin Of Some Notable Pluto Nomenclature

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
December 4, 2015
Filed under
The Real Origin Of Some Notable Pluto Nomenclature

Keith’s note: On 10 January 2008 Sir Edmund Hillary, one of two humans to first stand atop Mt. Everest died. I sent Alan Stern, then AA for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate an email: “I hope you name a new, large feature on Mercury after Edmund Hillary – and Tenzing Norgay…” Stern promptly sent an email to MESSENGER PI Sean Solomon saying “Sean-As you may have seen in the past few hours, Sir Edmund Hillary died today. Let’s name prominent features for him and Tenzing Norgay on Mercury. It’s ALL about exploration.” Solomon concurred. Eventually it became clear that the IAU only wanted to name things on Mercury after painters for some unexplained reason.
Flash forward to July 2015 – mountain ranges on Pluto have been provisionally named “Hillary Montes” and “Norgay Montes”. According to the Washington Post “For many years, we referred to Pluto as the Everest of planetary exploration,” New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern said in a statement. “It’s fitting that the two climbers who first summited Earth’s highest mountain, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, now have their names on this new Everest.” I hope the names stick. That said, who first suggested it to Stern? Just sayin’.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

5 responses to “The Real Origin Of Some Notable Pluto Nomenclature”

  1. moon2mars says:
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    For completness sake our Science Team on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit honored Hillary, Norgay and Everest at the summit of Husband Hill back in 2005:
    http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/ga