Name Approved for Lunar Crater: Tooley
2 February 2021The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name Tooley for a lunar crater. The name was approved on November 19, 2020. For more information, see the lunar map LAC-144 in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
Name Approved for Mercury Crater: Berry
8 October 2020The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name Berry for a crater on Mercury. For more information, please see the Mercury map H-01 in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
Names Approved for Charon: McCaffrey Dorsum and Cora
13 August 2020The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved two new names for Charon: McCaffrey Dorsum and Cora, a crater.
Names Approved for Pluto: Hardaway, Zagar, and Pulfrich
13 August 2020The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved three new names for craters on Pluto: Hardaway, Zagar, and Pulfrich.
Name Approved for Ceres: Homowo Regio
5 August 2020The Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name Homowo Regio for a feature on Ceres. See the feature page for Homowo Regio in the Gazetteer of Planetary System Nomenclature for more information.
Twelve New Names Approved For Bennu
30 March 2020The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved twelve new names for rocks on the asteroid Bennu, the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission. The new names are Thorondor Saxum, Dodo Saxum, Odette Saxum, Odile Saxum, Camulatz Saxum, Kongamato… Read More
Two Names Approved for Mars: Pliva Vallis and Sava Vallis
27 March 2020The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the names Pliva Vallis and Sava Vallis for two features in the vicinity of the Mars 2020 mission landing site, Jezero crater.
Names Approved for Mars: Izola and Izola Mensa
12 March 2020The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the names Izola and Izola Mensa for two features on Mars. For more information, please see the Mars map MC-21 in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
First Twelve Names Approved for Bennu
12 March 2020The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved twelve names for the asteroid Bennu: Aetos Saxum, Amihan Saxum, Benben Saxum, Gargoyle Saxum, Huginn Saxum, Muninn Saxum, Ocypete Saxum, Pouakai Saxum, Roc Saxum, Simurgh Saxum, Strix Saxum, and Tlanuwa Regio.
Name Approved for Lunar Crater: Ballet
11 February 2020The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name Ballet for a small lunar crater. This crater was used as a landmark and sample collection site during the Apollo 17 mission. For more information, please see the LAC-43 map in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
