Your chance to name Mercury's craters expires on Jan 15

The MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Team have recently revealed that Mercury crater-naming contest will end on January 15, 2015.

The contest, open to everyone except members of the mission's EPO team, was launched on December 15, 2014. NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has been in orbit about Mercury since March 2011. The mission's EPO team was led by Julie Edmonds of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the governing body of planetary and satellite nomenclature since 1919, new names for craters on Mercury must be that of an artist, composer, or writer who was famous for more than 50 years and has been dead for more than three years.

Winning submissions will be announced by the IAU to coincide with the end of MESSENGER's orbital operations in late March or April 2015. IAU decisions will be final.

The name cannot have any political, religious, or military significance. Nor can other features in the Solar System have the same name.

The MESSENGER spacecraft has far surpassed expectations both in the duration of the mission and in the quality and quantity of data. The mission will end this spring as the tiny craft succumbs to gravity and impacts on Mercury. The EPO team organized the competition to celebrate the mission's achievements.