![]() For instance, the Opportunity team nicknamed a crater “Endurance” to honor the ship that carried explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated expedition to Antarctica. The philosophy changed with the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, whose teams started using more intentional names. “Yogi Rock,” “Casper,” and “Scooby-Doo” were among the unofficial names applied by the team behind NASA’s first rover, Sojourner, in the late 1990s. More than 2,000 locations on Mars bear official names, but even more unofficial nicknames dot the Martian map.Įarly Mars missions sometimes took a whimsical route with nicknames, even using cartoon character names. Jezero Crater, which Perseverance has been exploring, shares the name from a Bosnian town Belva, an impact crater within Jezero, is named after a West Virginia town that is, in turn, named after Belva Lockwood, the suffragist who ran for president in 18. The IAU sets standards for naming planetary features and logs the names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.įor example, craters larger than 37 miles (60 kilometers) are named for famous scientists or science-fiction authors smaller craters are named after towns with populations of less than 100,000 people. ![]() ![]() The difference between an official name on Mars and an unofficial one is seemingly simple: Official monikers have been approved by a body of scientists known as the International Astronomical Union (IAU). ![]() How Does NASA Name Things on Mars? : Learn more about how Mars scientists name the craters, hills, valleys, and rocks on the Red Planet. ![]()
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