Public contest launched to name five craters on Mercury

Washington: The Education and Public Outreach (EPO) team has launched a public contest to name the five impact craters on Mercury in conjunction with the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The IAU has also kept a condition that all new craters on Mercury must be named after an artist, composer, or writer who was famous for more than 50 years and has been dead for more than three years.

The contest is open to everyone, except for members of the mission's EPO team.

The name cannot have any political, religious, or military significance, nor can other features in the solar system have the same name.

The contest running till 15 January 2015, allows the public to "immortalize" an important person in the arts and humanities from anywhere in the world.

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has been in orbit about Mercury since March 2011.