In partnership with NASA's New Horizons mission and the SETI Institute, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is endorsing a campaign that will allow the public to participate in naming newly discovered features on Pluto and its satellites. It is expected that many new features will be discovered in the upcoming flyby of Pluto and will be available for naming. The public is invited to suggest names within the designated IAU themes for these celestial bodies.
Pluto retains a unique position in the hearts and minds of many. Pluto is a remote and enigmatic world that resides at the edge of the solar system, in a region known as the Kuiper Belt, where it is one among many similar dwarf planets (), though Pluto remains the largest discovered to date.
On 14 July 2015, NASA's New Horizons probe will fly past Pluto, offering the first close-up look at this small, distant world and its largest satellite, Charon. These denizens of the outer solar system will, at long last, be transformed from mysterious, hazy bodies into worlds with distinct features.
In celebration of this historic occasion, the IAU is proud to endorse a campaign that will allow members of the public to participate in naming newly imaged and identified features on the surfaces of Pluto and its natural satellites.