Name That Planet! Alien Worlds Looking for Winning Names
“The Name ExoWorlds contest aims at crowd sourcing the process by which public names will be given to a large sample of well-studied, confirmed exoplanets and their host stars,” says the contest announcement from the IAU. Since 1919, the IAU has been the official naming body among professional astronomers for new discoveries in the heavens. Most memorably, the group made headlines by decreeing Pluto a “dwarf” planet in a 2006 vote.