Last year, the International Astronomical Union (IAU for short) decided that exoplanets deserve names. The IAU is the organization responsible for assigning names to astronomical objects and for demoting Pluto from a planet to a dwarf-planet.
Exoplanets are planets in orbit around stars other than our own sun. Over the past decade, hundreds of exoplanets have been discovered. The hope: exoplanets similar to the earth will eventually be discovered, planets that might be capable of supporting life. In fact we've discovered a wide variety of exoplanets, but we haven't found life beyond our solar system.
Individuals like you can be part of the process of naming one of these exoplanets. For now everyone must go through an official IAU astronomical organization. At the time of this post, there are two such organizations in the Ann Arbor area, the Ann Arbor Hands Museum and the University Lowbrow Astronomers. If you want to participate now you should look at the rules for this process (see the following web site)...
If you want to work through the Lowbrows, please leave a suggested name along with a short reason why you think it is an good name for a planet as a comment on this post. We will go through the comments, we are allowed to submit one name, so we will pick what we consider to be the best name and submit it.
You can also go to https://directory.iau.org/directory to find other organizations to work with.
Over the next few months suggested names will be send to the IAU by the Lowbrows and other organizations. Sometime this summer, all interested parties will be allowed to vote on the different names that the IAU has received.
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