A Utah campaign wants to name the moon -- "Isn't it dumb that the moon's name is Moon?"

This is an automatic summary, original reduced by 78%.

Last month, Henderson helped start the Utah-based "Name the Moon" campaign to gather signatures and petition the International Astronomical Union to give the moon a better name.

The union has been charged with naming celestial objects for about a century, but astronomers have been naming moons since 1610, when Galileo squinted into his telescope and discovered the first moons besides Earth's.

Our moon remains, simply, "The moon."

They're giving the moon makeovers, trying out new names and identities: Genghis, Marilyn or Poe.

When the lesson gets to Mars and mentions that the red planet's two moons are called Phobos and Deimos, NASA asks: "Don't you wish our moon had a cool name like that?".

Added Halford: "The moon is part of the universe, and the universe is the common heritage of mankind. So we can name it whatever we want, if we want."

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