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."
Re:So what (Score:0, Interesting)
The whole thing is ironic because we're not actually finding planets, we're finding light discontinuities that were once celestial objects, a "planet" millions of light years ago could've become space dust millions of light years ago and we wouldn't know.
Everyone gets a planet.... (Score:1, Interesting)
You find it, you name it (Score:3, Interesting)
These guys should have nothing to say about it. It should be the person who finds it gets naming rights, they earned it. If they want to sell their rights that should be their option too.