IAU: No, You Can't Name That Exoplanet 142
astroengine writes "The International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the official body that governs the designations of all celestial bodies — in their capacity of purveyors of all things 'official' has deemed attempts at crowdsourcing names for exoplanets illegitimate. 'In the light of recent events, where the possibility of buying the rights to name exoplanets has been advertised, the International Astronomical Union wishes to inform the public that such schemes have no bearing on the official naming process,' writes Thierry Montmerle, General Secretary of the IAU in Paris, France. Although the 'schemes' are not specifically named, the most popular U.S.-based "exoplanet naming" group Uwingu appears to be the target of today's IAU statement. Set up by Alan Stern, planetary scientist and principal investigator for NASA's Pluto New Horizons mission, Uwingu encourages the public to nominate and vote (for a fee) on names for the slew of exoplanets steadily being discovered."
So what (Score:5, Informative)
You can name planets as you like. Whether you're understood or not depends on how many others follow your naming convention, of course.
Re:So what (Score:2, Informative)
The "planets" were finding are a lot closer, probably not more than a thousand light years away but either way they cant become dust millions of light years ago as light year is a measure of distance not time.
buying a star (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Lol (Score:5, Informative)
The International Astronomical Union gives astronomical objects their official names, by international agreement. They accept suggestions and proposals, but they do not sell naming rights.
You can call astronomical objects whatever you want. The IAU is pointing out that paying someone for the privilege is kind of a dumb thing to do.