How to have a planet named after you

Published July 11, 2014 6:25pm

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has just launched a worldwide contest for the public to suggest names for one of 305 planets or stars in its database.

Citing the public's increased interest in being part of astronomical discoveries, the IAU said the tilt aims to give popular names to selected faraway planets and their host stars.

"The NameExoWorlds contest aims at crowdsourcing the process by which public names will be given to a large sample of well-studied, confirmed exoplanets and their host stars, referred to as ExoWorlds," the IAU said.

IAU described "NameExoWorlds" as a "global, cross-cultural, educational, and above all ambitious and challenging contest, both for the IAU–Zooniverse partnership, and for the public."

Under the contest, astronomy clubs and non-profit organizations interested in astronomy may submit suggested names, and the public may vote over them.

"The intention is that millions of people worldwide will be able to take part in the vote. Once the votes are counted, the winning names will be officially sanctioned by the IAU, allowing them to be used freely in parallel with the existing scientific nomenclature, with due credit to the clubs or organizations that proposed them," IAU said.

Name game

IAU, which was created in 1919, noted that people have been naming celestial objects long before any scientific system of names ever existed.

On August 14 last year, the IAU issued a statement on the Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites, setting the initial rules that let the public get involved in naming exoplanets.

IAU's Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites Working Group is teaming up in this project with Zooniverse, the Internet's most popular citizen science projects.

Mechanics

A list of 305 well-characterized exoplanets discovered before Dec. 31, 2008 has been selected for naming and will be published on the www.NameExoWorlds.org website.

The exoplanets belong to 260 exoplanetary systems with one to five members plus their host stars.

Meanwhile, an IAU Directory for World Astronomy website is being prepared (directory.iau.org), which will open in September 2014 for astronomy clubs and non-profit organizations to register in.

By October 2014, these clubs or organizations will be asked to vote for the 20–30 exoworlds they wish to name out of the IAU list.

Starting December 2014, these clubs or organizations can then send in proposals for the names of members and host stars. Each group will be allowed to name only one exoworld.

By March 2015, the general public may vote to rank the proposed exoworld names. IAU said it and Zooniverse "will be ready to handle a million votes or more worldwide."

The results will be announced in August 2015. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News

Tags: astronomy