Voting for the International Astronomical Union's "NameExoWorlds" competition to name 32 exoplanets and a majority of their host stars is now open.
The contest is the first official time the public can help assign common names to exoplanets and the first in centuries for stars, according to the IAU, the sole authority that assigns official names to celestial bodies.
NameExoWorlds began July last year when the IAU selected 260 planetary systems, which host a total of 305 planets, that could be selected for public naming. That list was whittled down to 20 systems when astronomy clubs and nonprofit organizations voted in January. They then submitted 247 name proposals for the celestial bodies. .
You can vote for your preference on the NameExoWorlds website until October 31 11:59 p.m. UTC when voting closes. Casting your vote is free and requires no registration. One computer or device can only vote for each of the 20 planetary systems once.
As a bonus, the explanations for host stars’ names and messages from scientists who discovered them are available on the official website.Jenna Pitcher is a freelance journalist writing for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter.
