The Evolution of NASA's Naming System for Martian Landscape.

NASA scientists name thousands of geological features on Mars, from hills and mountains to tiny pebbles, to understand the landscape and communicate with each other about the rocks seen by the rovers. There are two main categories of names given to objects on Mars: official names assigned by the International Astronomical Union and nicknames chosen by the rover teams. The teams compile a list of names ahead of time based on different themes, and smaller features like rocks, cliffs, and meteorites get nicknames chosen by the rover teams that are not official, but they do stick.