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IAU names Pluto's two new moons Nix and Hydra

The designations P1 and P2, spotted by Hubble just last year, become names drawn from underworld mythology and chosen with a nod to the New Horizons mission whose initials they share.

By June 2006, Pluto was already losing its grip on planetary status — the IAU vote that would demote it to "dwarf planet" was just weeks away. Against that backdrop, the same IAU convened on June 21 to do something more generous: officially name the two small moons that Max Mutchler and Andrew Steffl had spotted with the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2005. "P1" became Nix, and "P2" became Hydra — both drawn from the mythology of the underworld, and both chosen with a quiet nod to the New Horizons mission whose initials they share…

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More from June 21

Otis stands before the General Court and charges King and Parliament with tyranny

The Boston lawyer who called taxation without representation unlawful delivers his sharpest attack yet; word is already moving toward London.

New Hampshire ratifies; the Constitution crosses the nine-state threshold

Eight states had approved it and it meant nothing; the Granite State's vote today makes the Philadelphia document the law of a real nation.

Japanese submarine shells Fort Stevens; Doney orders blackout, holds his guns

Commander Tagami surfaces I-25 at the Columbia River mouth after dark, fires seventeen rounds, and slips away undamaged, leaving cut telephone lines on the Oregon coast.

SpaceShipOne, built by Burt Rutan for roughly $25 million of Paul Allen's money, breaks a 43-year government monopoly on crewed spaceflight.

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Atlantis lifts off at night, headed for a wounded Russian station

Commander James Wetherbee's crew carries a French astronaut, David Wolf as a replacement for Michael Foale, and a repair spacewalk.

By dawn, a relief convoy finally reaches the surrounded Americans in Mogadishu

Seventeen hours after the first Black Hawk fell, Pakistani and Malaysian armor opens a corridor out of the city.

MESSENGER finds a 716-kilometer scar on Mercury's southern hemisphere

The second of three planned flybys doubles as a gravity-assist maneuver and a discovery run.

American bombs fall on Afghanistan; Bush says "time is running out"

Air strikes hit Taliban defenses and al-Qaeda camps as U.S. special forces move in to back the Northern Alliance.

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