A contest is afoot to re-name (469219) Kamoʻoalewa (itself formerly 2016 HO3). Begun by the WNYC radio/podcast show Radiolab, now joined by the IAU (International Astronomical Union- the body that can actually name things), this contest is to find a name for Earth’s (known) quasi-satellite. Kamo’oalewa circulates in the inner Solar System, in an Earth-commensurate orbit; Earth’s gravity has trapped it in a certain, stable configuration. Kamo’oalewa is temporarily stable because it is 1:1 commensurate- both it, and the Earth, go around in the same period, one Earth year. The difference is that Kamo’oalewa is not bound- that is, in Earth’s Hill Sphere- the radius where Earth’s gravity dominates that from the Sun, Jupiter, Venus, etc. Earth’s Hill radius is roughly a million kilometers. Kamo’oalewa is still a Sun-orbiter, but its orbit dips inside, then outside, Earth’s orbit around the Sun. It dips in and out about every six months- half a year. From Earth’s point of view then, these dip-in, dip-out cycles resemble a moon, except at staggering distance (well over a million km). Yet from the Sun’s point of view, Kamo’oalewa still appears to orbit it. We call this configuration a “quasi-satellite.”
The Radiolab staff then heard of this “quasi-moon” and thought it’s neat. Too neat to be just a “quasi-satellite”, “Earth-commensurate object”, or Kamo’oalewa (let alone 2016 HO3). This contest invites listeners to submit their ideas for a “real” name:
https://radiolab.org/moon-official-rules/
And now the IAU has carried the effort, linking from the IAU home page:
Competition Announced to Name a Quasi-Moon – Press Release iau2406 — 31 May 2024
I am of mixed opinion. If you haven’t already gathered, I use “Kamo’oalewa” (‘floater’ or ‘bobber’ in Hawaiian- refers to the gentle orbital motions), the official IAU name. Publicity happens to be a good thing, and I would bet good money the average person on the street has never heard of a “quasi-satellite,” let alone this quasi-satellite. And yet, is this how official the ‘official’ naming is to be done?
The Chinese space agency is building a mission to HO3-Kamo’oalewa-whatever. Lest you think a “dumb rock” in space doesn’t matter. The CNSA scientists certainly find that it matters.