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HONOLULU — The votes are in! Thirty-two exoplanets will get new names that were chosen in an open vote by the general public. The naming announcement will come next Tuesday (Aug. 11) at an international meeting of astronomers.
The "Name the Exoworlds" campaign, created by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), gave the public the opportunity to vote on new names for stars and planets in 20 exoplanet systems. The results of the campaign will be announced on Aug. 11 at the IAU's 29th General Assembly meeting here in Honolulu, Hawaii.
"This is another attempt by the union to engage the public in the activities of the union," said Piero Benvenuti, IAU's assistant general secretary, in a media briefing on Monday (Aug. 3).
When planets and stars are discovered, they are automatically given names that are often very technical-sounding, such as the star HD 149026 and its planet HD 149026b (which will both be given new names on Aug. 11). The contest will give "common" names to 32 exoplanets and 15 of those planets' 20 host stars. (Five of the host stars already have common names.) Proposed names for HD 149026 include Jiyaiantobaba, Opuntia and Ogmios. The complete list of systems and proposed names can be found here.
Members of the astronomy community can also submit proposals to the IAU to rename stars, planets and other space objects, but this is rarely practical because there are so many objects.
In an effort to get the public excited about astronomy, the IAU decided to get people involved in naming some of the most interesting exoplanet systems ever discovered. The 20 exoplanet systems selected for the contest were all discovered before 2008, and have been studied extensively (this ensures that scientists have confirmed that these objects are, in fact, exoplanets).
Organizations and clubs were invited to submit proposals for new names, which were then listed online in ballot form. The general public was then invited to vote for their favorite monikers.
nternship opportunity as a part-time junior research assistant involving some of the very interesting things we discuss here so my time to post on ATS will be extremely limited both in the fall and summers going forward.
originally posted by: JadeStar
So, as many of you know, I've posted a lot of stories here on exoplanets and astrobiology from time to time. When talking about exoplanets often the names can be daunting to the average person. While an astronomy student like me has no problem differentiating between a planet called Kepler-22 b and Kepler-452 b or Gliese 180c and Gliese 581d most people do not know or understand astronomical naming conventions based on astronomical catalogs such as the Kepler, Hipparcos, Gliese and Henry Draper catalogs.
And as we get to know more about these worlds they become less statistical and more real for people. And as new techniques to discover not only planets but new ways to perhaps discover life on them have continued at an ever increasing rate so do the number of places which currently do and in the future will need names.
So it's about time some of them started getting common names like Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, etc. I mean imagine if we referred to Mars as Sol-4... Not quite as enticing is it?
So why should naming be left up to academics and bureaucrats? Why not let the average person have a chance at naming these distant places?
The IAU (International Astronomical Union), the organization which designates the names of places in space agreed and as I first detailed for ATS back in December of 2013, agreed to to allow the general public the right to name these worlds...
...assuming that no who might reside out there has named them has already
And in July of 2014 I even showed you were you as an interested ATS member could sign up to become part of the process as soon as those details were announced.
The following story I posted an excerpt from below, details the planned announcement of the first batch of common names for exoplanets next week. When you think about it. These worlds orbiting distant suns are kind of like new uninhabited lands. It could be that our distant descendants as children will see a "Discovered: 1997, Officially named: 2015" next to the historical notes on a place they learn about, or even might call home.
In that sense we are currently living in a historical period not unlike the renaissance era of discovery.
Kind of exciting huh?
Here's an excerpt from Space.com:
HONOLULU — The votes are in! Thirty-two exoplanets will get new names that were chosen in an open vote by the general public. The naming announcement will come next Tuesday (Aug. 11) at an international meeting of astronomers.
The "Name the Exoworlds" campaign, created by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), gave the public the opportunity to vote on new names for stars and planets in 20 exoplanet systems. The results of the campaign will be announced on Aug. 11 at the IAU's 29th General Assembly meeting here in Honolulu, Hawaii.
"This is another attempt by the union to engage the public in the activities of the union," said Piero Benvenuti, IAU's assistant general secretary, in a media briefing on Monday (Aug. 3).
When planets and stars are discovered, they are automatically given names that are often very technical-sounding, such as the star HD 149026 and its planet HD 149026b (which will both be given new names on Aug. 11). The contest will give "common" names to 32 exoplanets and 15 of those planets' 20 host stars. (Five of the host stars already have common names.) Proposed names for HD 149026 include Jiyaiantobaba, Opuntia and Ogmios. The complete list of systems and proposed names can be found here.
Members of the astronomy community can also submit proposals to the IAU to rename stars, planets and other space objects, but this is rarely practical because there are so many objects.
In an effort to get the public excited about astronomy, the IAU decided to get people involved in naming some of the most interesting exoplanet systems ever discovered. The 20 exoplanet systems selected for the contest were all discovered before 2008, and have been studied extensively (this ensures that scientists have confirmed that these objects are, in fact, exoplanets).
Organizations and clubs were invited to submit proposals for new names, which were then listed online in ballot form. The general public was then invited to vote for their favorite monikers.
I just want to also say thank you to all of you who have supported me (and my family) and liked my posts here on ATS.
The new semester is starting and I have been given a very interesting internship opportunity as a part-time junior research assistant involving some of the very interesting things we discuss here so my time to post on ATS will be extremely limited both in the fall and summers going forward.
That said, I still do plan to drop by from time to time to keep you posted on any and all breaking stories from the world of discovering new worlds and perhaps even new life or even civilizations.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here with you and our intelligent, often enthralling and wide ranging discussions and debates about just what might be out there. The next few decades promise to be extremely interesting and it is quite likely we will all have some of the answers to some age old questions about the universe and life within them. I hope to be involved in the thick of it and the time for me to get serious is now as both the coursework and the opportunity I mentioned will be very challenging.
So again, thank you. I LOVE all of you! (even the tinfoil ppl hehe)
Keep looking up and out.
♥♥♥♡♡♡♥♥♥
Jade
For more information on exoplanet naming and to get involved yourself check out Name ExoWorlds home page.
For more information on exoplanet discovery techniques check out the following video below and bookmark NASA/JPL's PlanetQuest home page.
And to get involved in helping potentially discover a new planet yourself by examining Kepler data check out PlanetHunters.org home page.
originally posted by: SecretKnowledge
Good luck in your internship Jade, i have a question for you..
If the team you are part of discovers life on another planet and you were told not to speak of this to absolutely nobody, would you come here and give ATS a World exclusive?
Its a serious question. We, the World, have a right to know
originally posted by: _BoneZ_
originally posted by: JadeStar
I LOVE all of you! (even the tinfoil ppl hehe)
We love you also. And love having you around. Just don't forget about us little people when you make it to the big time.
♥♥♥♡♡♡♥♥♥
originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: JadeStar
nternship opportunity as a part-time junior research assistant involving some of the very interesting things we discuss here so my time to post on ATS will be extremely limited both in the fall and summers going forward.
At least you have a good reason.
I, for one, will miss you.
But...
Congratulations!!! That is so cool for you. Just remember, in twenty years or so, when you've got your own TV show, us.
...and one of those planets just has to be named Vulcan, right?
originally posted by: Kratos40
Holy cow! JadeStar....can we at least name one planet VUlCAN? In honor of Spock and his race who lost their home world?
originally posted by: zazzafrazz
Great thread and another gift to ATS from jade.
Won't be accepting you will be gone for too long. ***Stamps foot***
THANKS to the Kepler Space Telescope, we know the galaxy could hold as many as 30 billion planets similar to our own. The next generation of eyes in the sky, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, slated to launch in 2018, will search the atmospheres of such exoplanets for signs of life. Some think it’s just a matter of time before we find out we’re not alone. In April, NASA’s chief scientist Ellen Stofan predicted we would have “strong indications of life” on other planets by 2025. If she is right, how will we deal with the news?
What we detect will make a big difference to how we react, says Steven J. Dick, a former NASA historian and current astrobiology chair at the US Library of Congress in Washington DC.
Astronomers have dreamed about finding alien life for centuries. It's just always been considered a far-fetched possibility — the stuff of science fiction. That's why it's so surprising that in recent years, many scientists have started taking the search for life on other planets much, much more seriously.
(continued here).
That's partly due to new astronomical discoveries. A generation ago, we didn't even have evidence that there were any planets orbiting other stars. But in the past few decades, scientists have found thousands of distant "exoplanets," including several that seem like they might have the right conditions for life. At the same time, scientists have discovered several moons right in our own solar system that appear to have liquid oceans underneath their icy surfaces and perhaps other ingredients necessary for life.
It's all extremely promising. So astronomers have decided to double down on the search for extraterrestrials. They've moved beyond the traditional methods, which involved simply hoping that intelligent aliens might contact us via radio signals, à la the SETI Institute. Instead, they're now planning missions to nearby ocean worlds and finding new ways to peer at distant planets.
Some astronomers— including NASA's chief scientist — even believe we could find alien life within our lifetimes. "With new telescopes coming online within the next five or 10 years, we'll really have a chance to figure out whether we're alone in the universe," Lisa Kaltenegger, the director of Cornell's new Carl Sagan Institute, told me last year. "For the first time in human history, we might have the capability to do this."
Granted, if life does exist on any of these planets or moons — either in our solar system or outside it — it's far more likely to be in the form of simple, single-celled organisms rather than little green men. These microscopic aliens would be extremely hard to definitively detect, especially if they're orbiting other stars. But it would be a monumental discovery, a sign at last that we're not alone.
Here's a step-by-step guide to how we'll actually go looking for alien life.....