NASA invites you to name an Asteroid!

MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, the Planetary Society, and the University of Arizona are encouraging students around the world to suggest better names for an asteroid, which is currently called 1999 RQ36. NASA’s upcoming space mission will bring back samples from this asteroid to Earth.

Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission is called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). It is believed that samples returned from the primitive surface of this near-Earth asteroid could hold clues to the origin of the solar system and organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth.

How to apply: The contest is open to students under the age of 18.  To participate, parents or teachers must fill out an online entry form with the proposed name and a short explanation of why that name is a good choice. But bear in mind that an asteroid cannot be called just anything. The International Astronomical Union governs the naming of big and small objects in the solar system, and they have guidelines on how to name near-Earth objects. You must go through them before applying for the competition. All the best!

Last date to apply: December 2, 2012