Finally, Really, You're Invited to Help Name Distant Planets

Finally, Really, You're Invited to Help Name Distant Planets

It's a new policy for the International Astronomical Union.  Kepler 22b Kepler-22b, just 2.4 times the size of Earth, is the first planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Scientists do not yet know if the planet has a rocky, gaseous, or liquid composition. It's possible that the world would have clouds in its atmosphere, as depicted here. NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
The world known officially as PSR B1620-26 b orbits a binary star system about 12,000 light-years away.
With an estimated age of 12.7 billion years, PSR B1620-26 b is considered one of the oldest planets in the universe, more than twice as old as our solar system. Astronomers found it in the 1990s because of the tug it exerts on its two stars, a pulsar and a white dwarf.


As a name, PSR B1620-26 b doesn’t exactly have a ring to it, though. Some people instead call it Methuselah, after the oldest living person according to biblical accounts.

Next year, you’ll be able to vote on that name, and maybe have it officially sanctioned by the International Astronomical Union, in a new project under the Zooniverse. This is a big change for the largest astronomy society in the world, and an exciting one for citizen science.

To participate, you have to be involved in an astronomy club or non-profit organization, which can register with the IAU and then submit names for about 30 planets of the IAU’s choosing. Voting will happen next spring and summer, and the IAU will announce the new nicknames at a special ceremony at its 29th General Assembly next August, the biggest astronomy new science discoveries