Have you ever wanted to name a part of the solar system? Well now's your chance: A new contest will let a lucky participant name one of Earth's"quasi-moons."
Earth has seven known quasi-moons, which are all asteroids, according to The Planetary Society. Several of these temporary satellites have been uncovered in the last few years, such as 2023 FW13 — the most recently discovered quasi-moon, which was first spotted in March last year. And so far, only one of Earth's quasi-moons, Kamo'oalewa, has been officially named.
Related: Undiscovered extra moons may orbit Earth. Could they help us become an interplanetary species? The idea to finally name this quasi-moon was first put forward by Radiolab after the podcast helped to successfully name Venus' only known quasi-moon, Zoozve, in February after co-host Latif Nasser spotted a typo of the asteroid's name in a solar system map.
First, suggested names must have a mythological origin, meaning they must be from a character or object in any mythology. Second, names must be a maximum of 16 characters long and written using the Latin alphabet — the same 26 letters used in English .
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