Planet-naming competition could bring Gallifrey and Vulcan into existence

New exoplanet names cannot be living people or divisive, but famous planets in science fiction could be strong candidates


Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine, Doctor Who's place of origin Gallifrey, and Vulcan, where Spock spent his formative years, could all become real places around the universe if fans take up the opportunity to plug their favourite fictional locations in a competition to name newly discovered planets.


The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the world authority that names objects in space, is giving the public the chance to name up to 30 planets from a pre-selected group of 305 extrasolar planets or "exoplanets" – planets outside our solar system – discovered before 2009.


Since the 1920s the IAU has had the mammoth cataloguing task of naming every planetary body spotted by astronomers, including planets, stars and the less glamorous but much more commonplace asteroids, of which there are hundreds of thousands. Normally, the naming system used by the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature results in some less than memorable planet names – such as Gliese 581 g, a potentially habitable exoplanet located 20 light-years away.


But for the first time, the naming process has now been opened up to the public. On Wednesday, the IAU, in association with crowd-sourcing veterans Zooniverse, announced a worldwide competition to give "popular names to selected exoplanets along with their host stars". The idea, in a nutshell, is that any registered astronomical society, club or related non-profit organisation can suggest a name for any of the 305 handpicked planets.

 The names can be up to 16 letters long and cannot feature living people or names likely to be divisive, or pets. The most popular names will then be put forward to an online public poll in March next year, through the new web platform NameExoWorld, where up to 30 planets will be christened.


Professor Martin Barstow from the University of Leicester, who is also president of the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of the IAU, said: "I think it's a really good idea … [It will get] the public involved in some of these decisions and gives them a chance to contribute and hopefully it will raise the visibility of astronomy in general and what the IAU is there for."


The new competition follows hot on the heels of the IAU's first venture into internet polling last year, when the public were asked to name two newly discovered moons of Pluto. Styx and Kerberos were the winning names.