26 Feb 2013

Vulcan voted name for new moon

10:47 am on 26 February 2013

In a tribute to the Star Trek television series, almost 500,000 people have voted to give one of Pluto's newly discovered moons the name of Vulcan.

Vulcan was the fictional home planet of Mr Spock, the second-in-command on the USS Enterprise. The actor who played him, Leonard Nimoy, says Vulcan is the logical choice.

The online poll was conducted by the SETI institute in California.

The name has been sent to the International Astronomical Union for approval.