Contest to name exoplanets

[Artemis Windsong]

IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach

To celebrate the our 10th anniversary we are launching a contest to name 20 exoplanetary systems to be observed by Webb Telescope.

www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2209/

[Tennesseer]

We already have Uranus so why not Ouranus for one of the exoplanets.

[Artemis Windsong]

I scanned the article.  To enter the contest a group needs to make a presentation on naming the exoplanets.

I signed up to build a rocket at the local library in mid-Sept.  I suggested this project to that coordinator.  Maybe she'll do something.

[Tiny]

As long as the names aren't along the line of Planety McPlanetFace it sounds like a fun thing!

I like the way kittens (and sometimes their feral-ish) momma cat are named in themes. Perhaps that kind of thinking would help with the namings... Perhaps after different groups of musical instruments (wind or string or percussion), or Candy (may be trademarks...), or groupings of animals (Big Cats, Marsupials, something else).

If you need to name the exoplanetds after people... perhaps names from science fiction or fantasy worlds? Star trek is an obvious one - but what about Harry Potter? or some other "well built" world where the characters have taken on a life of their own?

I'm guessing naming planets after actual people would be better - so maybe some of the unsung heroes of science (women, people of color, people in other countries, you get the idea.) Unfortunately, I do not know the names of the unsung heroes. I suspect there a plenty of them though.

[Artemis Windsong]

It will be interesting to find out what is chosen.  Names from native tongues will be so COOL!  Words we've never seen/heard.

"Cultures around the world have long made connections with objects in the natural world by giving them names in their native tongues. Many civilisations have developed their own stories, mythologies, and cultural contexts around specks of light in the heavens above. Through these connections we eventually found our place among the stars. This is the story of how astronomy came to be among the earliest of the disciplines we now call science, and the beginning of humanity’s eternal quest to understand the Universe around us.

How can you participate?​

Create a team that brings together students and teachers, astronomy enthusiasts, amateur astronomers, and professional astronomers. [3]
Conduct an astronomy outreach event related to exoplanets.
Choose a system from the 20 ExoWorlds on the list.
Propose a name for the exoplanet and its host star in your language and provide an explanation of the cultural context.
Register your team and submit your naming proposal (written format + video) (via this form);

The proposals will go through a two-step process of selection. First, a national selection panel led by the National Outreach Coordinators (NOCs) [4] will select a national candidate and two backup names. Then a final selection committee — composed of the Working Group on Exoplanetary Systems Nomenclature and the exoplanet discoverers — will consider the candidates proposed by each country and select a name for each ExoWorld"