The first exoplanet name contest

To encourage public interest in astronomical discoveries, the International Astronomical Union (IAN) for the first time decided to hold an open competition of names for exoplanets, similar in characteristics to the Earth.

Voting for the best titles will be held on the NameExoWorlds website . Registration on the site will open in September 2014, and voting by astronomical organizations will begin in October (only officially registered organizations can offer names for planets and stars). The rest of the public will be allowed to vote in March 2015, and in July winners will be determined.

People assigned arbitrary names to planets and stars long before the scientific naming system was introduced in this area. In particular, the International Astronomical Union began its activities in 1919. The exoplanet naming system was approved in 2013 .

As part of the NameExoWorlds contest, it is planned to select the most interesting names for the planets and stars in which these planets are located. Who knows, maybe someday people will be able to populate one of these planets, which is now choosing a name.

For the competition, 305 exoplanets were selected, open until December 31, 2008. They are located in 260 star systems.

Name Requirements:

• 16 characters maximum
• One word is desirable
• Spellable word (at least in any language)
• Not offensive
• Unlike the names of other existing astronomical objects (see the list here )

It is forbidden to indicate the names of pets, commercial names, names of people, geographical names and names of events of political, military and religious meaning. The title should not be subject to any type of copyright or related rights.