Help Name the Exoplanets

If you are looking to name something outside the solar system, a few exoplanets await you. The International Astronomical Union has a list of 20 exoplanets in need of a name.  All you need to do is visit this site to vote. 

For instance, four planets orbit mu Arae above and the voting allows you to vote in clusters, naming both the sun and orbiting planets.  One of the naming clusters is shown below and has a Portuguese theme.   

Voting is open until October 31 and the winners will be announced in November (the timeline and rules are here).  Here is your chance to impact a whole new world. 

Pluto: Let the Mapping Begin

The naming of Pluto's features has already begun, as you can see above.  Visit Our Pluto for the map above as well as the ongoing efforts to bring definition to the dwarf planet's surface.  It appears these names have been submitted to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) for consideration, so nothing is official yet. 

Last month the site noted:

Today we are pleased to announce our initial slate of names to be proposed to the IAU. We received so many great suggestions that winnowing down the list was a real challenge. Nevertheless, we limited our proposal to about ten names in each theme so as not to overwork the IAU nomenclature working group too heavily. There will be many more features to name, so rest assured that the names that didn't make the initial list will be used eventually. If your favorite name is not on these lists, please be patient!

Take a look at this IAU press release from 2013 regarding the naming of Pluto's new moons for more on the naming process:

After the discovery, the leader of the research team, Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), decided to call for a public vote to suggest names for the two objects. To be consistent with the names of the other Pluto satellites, the names had to be picked from classical mythology, in particular with reference to the underworld — the realm where the souls of the deceased go in the afterlife. The contest concluded with the proposed names Vulcan, Cerberus and Styx ranking first, second and third respectively. Showalter submitted Vulcan and Cerberus to the IAU where the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) and the Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN) discussed the names for approval.

You Knew It Was Coming: The Pluto Petition

Now that New Horizons has provided us with a fascinating view of the dwarf planet Pluto, some are thinking it is time to restore Pluto to its rightful place among the full planets.  If you agree, you might want to visit change.org, which has a petition with about 4,300 names on it as of today.  

And what does this group want?  Hopefully, the petitioners can capture the attention of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is the same culprit that knocked Pluto off the planetary list:

The IAU meets again for its general assembly in August 2015. And in the coming weeks, New Horizons will collect unprecedented amounts of data about the Pluto system, calling in to question the definition set forth by the IAU.

I am wondering if I need to start a petition for Eris, also floating out there with Pluto, or even Ceres (shown below), now being studied by the Dawn spacecraft.  With the five dwarf planets, we would have 13 officials planet for now.  I say the more the merrier.