This image, created from photographs, shows the bright star Fomalhaut, host star to exoplanet Dagon. Named after a Semitic deity, 'Dagon' is one of 45 new star and planet names chosen by a public vote. Image credit: NASA/ESA/Digitized Sky Survey 2

This image, created from photographs, shows the bright star Fomalhaut, host star to exoplanet Dagon. Named after a Semitic deity, 'Dagon' is one of 45 new star and planet names chosen by a public vote. Image credit: NASA/ESA/Digitized Sky Survey 2

From the International Astronomical Union

The votes are in — the names of 19 ExoWorlds (14 stars and 31 exoplanets orbiting them) have been chosen by public vote in the NameExoWorlds contest, and accepted by the IAU. Reflecting the truly international interest in astronomy, over half a million votes from 182 countries and territories contributed to the new official designations of the alien worlds.

Although people have been naming celestial objects for millennia, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the authority responsible for assigning official names to celestial bodies. The NameExoWorlds contest provided the first opportunity for the public to name exoplanets, and their stars. The winning names are to be used freely in parallel with the existing scientific nomenclature, with due credit to the clubs or organizations that proposed them.

With voting concluding on Oct 31, 2015, a total of 573,242 votes from the public have contributed to the naming of 31 exoplanets and 14 host stars. Proposers of the winning names are to be awarded a plaque commemorating their contribution to astronomy and they will be given the exciting opportunity to name a minor planet.

The public voted on the 274 proposed ExoWorld names submitted by a wide variety of astronomy organizations from 45 countries all over the world — these included amateur astronomy groups, schools, universities and planetariums. The successful entries were received from across the globe — four were received from North America (USA, Canada), one from Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico), two from the Middle East & Africa (Morocco, Syria), six from Europe (France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland), and six from Asia–Pacific (Australia, Japan, Thailand).

IAU

Image credit: IAU

The IAU Executive Committee Working Group on the Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites validated all the individual cases of the winning names from the vote, as stipulated in the guidelines, and made appropriate modifications to the original proposals where necessary, in full agreement with the proposers.

However, after extensive deliberation, the Committee decided to annul the vote for one particular ExoWorld — tau Boötis — as the winning name was judged not to conform with the IAU rules for naming exoplanets. To this end, the IAU will organize a new contest to decide the name of tau Boötis in the future.

The newly adopted names take the form of different mythological figures from a wide variety of cultures from across history, as well as famous scientists, fictional characters, ancient cities and words selected from bygone languages.

Download the complete list of results here: http://nameexoworlds.iau.org/names

 
IAU 2
Image credit: IAU