IAU's NameExoWorlds Contest

Done!

Well done for entering our society, Christina. If Flamsteed gets to name one, what will you name it?

I like that one of the exoplanets has a moon!!! I mean, wow, they actually detected exomoons!?! How on earth (so to speak) did they do that?!

I voted for a balance of very large exoplanets and decent naked eye magnitude because my thinking is that gas planets can have lots of moons which potentially could host life themselves. Larger the planet, more moons? Our Jupiter is whole mini solar system by itself.

I was voting for one exoplanet and suddenly changed my mind when I saw the speed of its orbit around its host was 3 days. If there was life on that planet or on one of its moons, it will be a bloody nauseating life with vomit everywhere...

...sorry about my sick imagination 😉

Good to hear that you've submitted your vote, Tej! Every vote counts!!!

This is a Flamsteed effort and I am merely helping facilitate this on our behalf. The intention is that Flamsteed members will decide what we submit to the IAU and ultimately what we propose to name our chosen ExoWorld in the next phase of the competition. Can't wait to see how this pans out!

Like you, I was interested to read about HD 33564, a star located in the Camelopardalis constellation with a planet that's potentially within the habitable zone! My vote was torn between this and Kappa Coronae Borealis or 70 Virginis. The thought of there being a debris disk within these worlds draws me towards them, perhaps because it reminds me of the Kuiper belt within our Solar System. It entices me to question whether there might be more planets that haven't been detected as yet within these systems: dwarf planets a bit like Pluto, perhaps...

gas planets can have lots of moons which potentially could host life themselves. Larger the planet, more moons? Our Jupiter is whole mini solar system by itself.

Now this is an interesting thought! Hadn't thought of this!

I guess, the larger the planet, the larger it's potential moons and perhaps the more suited to habitability they would be? My thinking is that perhaps position away from the host star matters in terms of how many moons a planets has… Just by comparing this to our own Solar System, where planets close to our Sun have no moons, Earth has one, Mars has two… It seems that the further out you go, the more Moons a planet is likely to have, no matter the size (little Pluto has at least 5, I think).

I saw the speed of its orbit around its host was 3 days...

I'm curious... Does a planet as close to it's star as this, behaves like our Moon and is tidally locked, with the same face visible at all times?

I guess, the larger the planet, the larger it’s potential moons and perhaps the more suited to habitability they would be? My thinking is that perhaps position away from the host star matters in terms of how many moons a planets has… Just by comparing this to our own Solar System, where planets close to our Sun have no moons, Earth has one, Mars has two… It seems that the further out you go, the more Moons a planet is likely to have, no matter the size (little Pluto has at least 5, I think).

Thats a good thought and observation too! But also, those gas planets in near orbits to the parent star are likely to have originated from much much further out where gas planets normally form and somehow have spiralled in. So I like to think its still feasible to hold out hope for them to have plenty of moons 🙂 But its such a huge mystery as to how these gas planets ended up in such close orbits...and with such regular occurrence! Although, it may be perceived as a regular occurrence only because we still don't quite have the technology to detect the significant number of smaller rocky planets that surely must be in abundance among the stars, dont you think?

its such a huge mystery as to how these gas planets ended up in such close orbits…and with such regular occurrence!

True. Is our Solar System 'special'? Is it the norm to find large, gassier planets orbiting close to their star?  Or is it, as you say, perceived that way simply because we have yet to detect smaller, rockier planets? So many questions 🙂

Just under an hour to go until voting closes and there are a few clear Flamsteed favourites.

Here are the 5 highest scoring ExoWorlds that will definitely be submitted to the IAU based upon the results at present:

4 Ursae Majoris An evolved star has reached the giant stage in Ursa Major with one planet at least 7 times more massive than Jupiter.

HD 38529 A binary star in the constellation of Orion. There is a debris disk located at least 86AU from the primary star, which has been classified as a main sequence dwarf.

Epsilon Tauri An orange giant star in the constellation of Taurus. It is a member of the Hyades open cluster with one large, slow orbiting planet.

HD 33564 A 5th magnitude binary star in the constellation of Camelopardalis. It has a massive planet, believed to be in the habitable zone.

Upsilon Andromedae A binary star located in the constellation Andromeda. With three confirmed planets, this was the first multi-planet system found around a multi-star system.

Tej The belief is that these hot Jupiters were formed further out and then spiralled in towards their star probably due to some type of perturbation.

Thanks to everyone who has voted in the first round of the NameExoWorlds contest. The votes were added up. Here are the Flamsteed favourites:

18 Delphinis
4 Ursae Majoris
6 Lyncis
HD 104985
HD 210702
HD 3651
HD 38529
Epsilon Tauri
51 Pegasi
42 Draconis
70 Virginis
HD 19994
HD 33564
Tau Bootis
Ksi Aquilae
47 Ursae Majoris
Upsilon Andromedae
HD 190360
HR 8799
55 Cancri

These 20 ExoWorlds were submitted to the IAU on Saturday 14th February. Here's hoping that one of these gets selected by the IAU for naming! 🙂

Hi, thank you for that.
I voted for; Ursae Majoris; Epsilon Tauri & Upsilon Andromedae.

.. And thank you for voting! You may be interested to hear that Upsilon Andromedae was significantly popular amongst Flamsteed members. Fingers crossed it gets picked by the IAU and put through to the next round!

We counted up the results, submitted the nominations and now the IAU have notified us of the ExoWords that have made it through to the next round.

Great news! The IAU has chosen Upsilon Andromedae, one of our society’s favourite ExoWorlds to name. Congratulations to all those who took part! We would now like your help in deciding what to call the host star and each of the three exoplanets found within this system.

Here's a little information about Upsilon Andromedae to help you get creative when coming up with a name:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="700"] Artist’s rendition of the Upsilon Andromedae planetary system.
Credit: Sylwia Waterys, Northwestern University.[/caption]

About Upsilon Andromedae

Upsilon Andromedae is very easy to find, being the “left knee" of Andromeda. Roughly mid-way between Mirach and Almach is a faint triangle of stars. Upsilon Andromedae is the upper-right star in this group. With a magnitude of 4.1, it is at the limits of naked eye visibility in London's skies.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="550"] Map indicating where to find Upsilon Andromedae.
Credit: Pete Lawrence.[/caption]

Upsilon Andromedae is a binary star located approximately 44 light-years from Earth. The primary star is an F-type main-sequence star that is younger than the Sun. The second star is a red dwarf in a wide orbit around the primary. With three confirmed planets, this was the first multi-planet system found around a multi-star system by Doppler spectroscopy. A fourth, long-period planet may orbit beyond the three known planets (this is not nameable).

The inner planet, a "hot Jupiter" so close to the star that its orbit is only a few days (its 'year' would be only 4.6 days), was discovered in 1996, and the two larger outer planets, with elongated orbits that perturb each other strongly, were discovered in 1999. One of these would have a mass of 14 Jupiters and take 242 days to circle Upsilon, in an oval orbit about 129 million kilometres from the star. The third planet is about 10 times the mass of Jupiter. It is even further away at 400 million kilometres. It takes about four Earth years to circle the star.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="521"] Comparison between Upsilon Andromedae and our Solar System.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI).[/caption]

A Star with an Interesting History

Its Flamsteed designation is 50 Andromedae (assigned in order of increasing right ascension), but there is an oddity here. Bayer described a 5th-magnitude star in Andromeda’s knee as Upsilon. However, he was apparently referring to HR 483 (which is closer to Almach). The error originated from Flamsteed, who noted that 50 Andromedae was the same as Bayer’s Upsilon. It is not. Bayer didn’t note 50 Andromedae at all (though Ptolemy did - marking it as “18”).

John Bevis discovered the error noting that “the character Upsilon is wrongly placed before the 50th (of Flamsteed) or Ptolemy’s 18th”. Bevis correctly assigned Upsilon to HR 483, and assigned his own letter “a” to Flamsteed’s 50 (also known as HR 458).

Francis Baily also caught the mistake, and removed Upsilon from 50 Andromedae and assigned it to HR 483 in his revised edition of Flamsteed’s catalogue.

However, Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander disagreed and thought that the error was a mistake of several degrees in Tycho’s catalogue, which misled Bayer. He felt that Upsilon was the equivalent of Flamsteed 50. Baily remained unconvinced, but despite his repeated efforts to set matters right, most astronomers persisted in designating 50 as Upsilon.

Even more oddly, Flamsteed did observe HR 483, but it was omitted from his printed catalogue!

Surely there aren't many stars with this type of history!

A little reminder that today is your LAST CHANCE to submit names!

What would you like to see Upsilon Andromedae and each of its three exoplanets called?

Have you had your say? Which group of names would you like to see as the final Flamsteed submission to the IAU?

There are two very close contenders! Your vote could change EVERYTHING!

You have until tomorrow, Friday 5th June to vote for your favourite. Voting will close at 23.59 BST.

Have you cast your vote?

You may recall that a few months ago we asked you to vote for one group of names as proposed by Flamsteed members, that would become our submission in the worldwide ‘NameExoWorlds’ contest organized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The group of names that won the Flamsteed vote is as follows:

Host Star: Flamstedius
First Planet: Grenovicum
Second Planet: Londinium
Third Planet: Cantium

These names formed the final Flamsteed submission and were submitted to the IAU along with a detailed proposal that outlined reasons for these choices.

It’s not over just yet. We now need to win the public vote in order to secure the proposed names above for our chosen ExoWorld, Upsilon Andromedae.

If you would like to take part in the public vote (and I kindly encourage you to vote for our submission if you do), then please find a link below to the Upsilon Andromedae page on the IAU’s website where you would be able to do so:

http://nameexoworlds.iau.org/systems/108

You have until Saturday 31st October to enter the public vote. Voting will close at 23.59 UTC. It’s very quick and no registration is required!

It's the FINAL chance to vote! The NameExoWorlds contest will be coming to a close on Saturday 31st October at 23.59 UTC.

Here is the link to the upsilon Andromedae page of the IAU's website where you are able to cast your vote:

http://nameexoworlds.iau.org/systems/108

Please vote wisely! 🙂