Nearest Alien Planet Gets New Name

SchrodingerZ writes "The nearest planet outside our solar system has recently been named Albertus Alauda. Originally named Alpha Centauri Bb, the planet is the closest known planet not orbiting the Sun, being a mere 4.3 light years away. The name comes from Jay Lark, who won the naming contest held by Uwingu starting last month and ending on April 22. Lark remarks that the name comes from the Latin name of his late grandfather, stating, "My grandfather passed away after a lengthy and valiant battle with cancer; his name in Latin means noble or bright and to praise or extol." The competition for naming the planet came from Uwing, a company which used the buying of name proposals and votes to fund grants for future space exploration ventures. Albertus Alauda won the competition with 751 votes, followed by Rakhat with 684 votes, and Caleo, with 622 votes."

Comments

Sid Meier

[Anonymous Coward]

The only known planet in Alpha Centauri should naturally have been named "Sid Meier". Any other name will be forgotten in no time by most people.

Re:Sid Meier

[binarylarry]

Sid Meier was one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, according to Bing.

Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure what to be more surprised about, that 751 suckers paid money to vote on a meaningless name competition, or that slashdot got duped into publishing it as if anyone other than Uwing will actually use the name.

This is just another variant on those "name a star after your mom" scams.

Re:Amazing

[Smallpond]

The IAU called it a scam and space.com called it a scam. So its a scam.

Re:Amazing

[Cow Jones]

Mod this man up.

From the space.com article, here's what Uwingu's CEO had to say...

"They basically said we're conducting a scam, and nothing could be further from the truth," [...] "They basically put us out of business, and they've ruined our reputation."

"To claim what they claimed — that we're somehow misrepresenting that these were IAU names — has just about put us out of business," Stern told SPACE.com. "It's unbelievable."

"They've spent 18 years with no forward movement — ask planet hunter extraordinaire [and Uwingu adviser] Geoff Marcy," Stern said. "Then somebody else comes along and does something harmless, fun and engaging, and now they're slandering us."

Oh cry me a river...

CJ

Re:Amazing

[meerling]

Correct.
Anybody can claim to be running a contest to name anything, legality not withstanding, however, only the body/organization that is internationally recognized as the valid naming registrar can actually place or change names. In this case, it's the IAU (International Astronomical Union).
Uwing claims they didn't say they were sanctioned to do so by IAU, but then again, they didn't say they weren't, and most people will assume that you had obtained permission to do something you are taking money for unless you say otherwise. To not point out that it is an unofficial name choosing, is the first sign of a scam.

Another thing, if you see anyone wanting money for ANYTHING not within the confines of the Earths Troposphere, it's about 99.999% probably it's a scam. You won't get any property, rights, or official naming of anything. There are international treaties that cover a lot of this stuff, and one of the first rules in that whole thing is if you don't have people their, you definitely have no rights to sell it, period. (Even if you do have people there, you still have lots of limits on what you can do.)

By the way, horrible name choice in my opinion. Nice to honor your grandfather, but still, that name sucks.

Re:Amazing

[simonbp]

To quite honest, and speaking as a working professional astronomer, the IAU itself is a bit of scam. It has no actual authority, no actual acountability, and no real sway on science. It's more a bunch of astronomers who should have been lawyers and who occasionally meet and pretend they are important. Oh and they charge an arm and leg for membership, which is why the vast majority of astronomers are not members.

In reality astronomy doesn't really need an "international authority". The sky is the sky and observations are almost always reproducible. If someone doesn't believe you, they can go and observe it themselves. That's called the scientific method. It does not need nor is enhanced by lawyers-cum-astronomers.

Authority...

[imsabbel]

Well, that fine.

But I name that planet Bob. And seeing that have just as much authority to name extraterestial bodies as this company that isn't even important enough to have a wikipedia article.

Re:Authority...

[Finallyjoined!!!]

No, sorry matey, my authority outranks yours, as I have 3 ex-wives.
I hereby name this planet: Eric

Re:Authority...

[Anonymous Coward]

Have have it from at least three sources that you are always wrong.

Re:Authority...

[Tablizer]

But I name that planet Bob...seeing that I have just as much authority to name...

Just to tick you off, I'm going to rename it "Bob" spelled backwards! Take that!

This is like those selling names for stars

[jmauro]

You get a nice certificate and nothing else. The IAU hasn't even started the process to create the procedure to name exoplanets.

Total bullshit

[Kjella]

The recognized standards body is the International Astronomical Union and their policy is:

Exoplanets
In 2009, the Organizing Committee of IAU Commission 53 Extrasolar Planets (WGESP) on exoplanets discussed the possibility of giving popular names to exoplanets in addition to their existing catalogue designation (for instance HD 85512 b). Although no consensus was reached, the majority was not in favour of this possibility at the time.

However, considering the ever increasing interest of the general public in being involved in the discovery and understanding of the Universe, the IAU decided in 2013 to restart the discussion of the naming procedure for exoplanets and assess the need to have popular names as well. In 2013 the members of Commission 53 will be consulted in this respect and the result of this will be made public on this page.

This is just a company click-baiting by holding naming contests, they have no official standing whatsoever. Is this more dice.com crap?

Re:Total bullshit

[Mr. McGibby]

If the IAU can't get off their collective asses and start doing their job properly, then they'll soon find themselves outvoted by the likes of Uwingu who are going to do it for them. The IAU only has the position it has because they did a good job of gaining consensus until recently with the whole Pluto fiasco. And if you don't think that was a fiasco, then you don't know enough about it. If they screw up exoplanet naming, then people are going to start looking to someone else or just ignore the IAU. Nobody wants that, so perhaps the IAU should stop acting like entitled pricks and do their damn job.

http://www.space.com/20665-planet-naming-controversy-iau-uwingu.html

Re:Total bullshit

[awrc]

Get off their collective asses? What's the urgency? Are the names of these exoplanets going to have any significance to *anybody* other than astronomers anytime soon? For values of "soon" that could measure in centuries. It's not as if somebody's desperately waiting on this information so they can put out bus timetables.

Re:Total bullshit

[bryonak]

I don't think it was a fiasco at all. Keep in mind that having 9 planets is out of question.
For starters, you'd have a hard time arguing that Pluto is a planet while Ceres isn't.

Either we designate Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Eris (notably bigger and more massive than Pluto) and possibly Orcus, Quaoar, OR and Sedna as planets... or we stay with Mercury up to Neptune.
There's a clear orbital distinction between the first 8 and the other 9+, so it really makes sense to group them in two categories, especially since we aren't sure at all that we have found all dwarf planets yet.

Re:Total bullshit

[arth1]

As I understand it, being in "lockstep" with another planet is not part of the scientific definition of planethood. If it were, then we'd have some problems.

No, but having an orbit that's been stable for and will continue to be stable for millions of years is a good start. Neptune won't suddenly pull Pluto out of its orbit, because their orbits are synchronized at a 2:3 rate. It's less clear how long-term stable Eris' orbit is.

Neither Pluto, nor Eris have cleared out the areas bordering their orbits.

Neither has Mars. Jupiter and Tellus keep Mars' orbit relatively clean, which it's too small to do itself, but there's still enough debris in its orbit that it occasionally runs into it (which Phobos and Deimos prove). The definition of keeping the orbit clean was added to specifically exclude Pluto and Ceres, but has to some extent backfired.
It would have been far better to just say straight out that they want to cap it at the gas and ice giants, plus the four historically known inner planets. I could live with that, but making up rules that don't even work in order to give a veneer of legitimacy to excluding some bodies and including others to match their desire, and pushing it through in a session after most of the opponents have left, that's what deserves derision and ridicule.

Naminf of Astronomical Objects

[jmpace2017]

I think the International Astronomical union is the only "Earthly" organization to assign official names to astronomical objects...

Here's an idea

[LordNimon]

How about ... the first person to set foot on the planet gets to name it?

Re:Here's an idea

[cynop]

When deep space exploration ramps up it'll be the corporations that name everything... the "IBM Stellar Sphere", the "Microsoft Galaxy", "Planet Starbucks".

His name is Dirt..

[sstamps]

When the native Alaudans were asked "what does the name of your planet mean in your tongue?"

"Dirt", they replied.

Re:His name is Dirt..

[NettiWelho]

When the native Alaudans were asked "what does the name of your planet mean in your tongue?"

"Dirt", they replied.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_(mythology)

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Tellus or Terra Mater ("Mother Earth") is a goddess of the earth.

Koozebane

[SplashMyBandit]

Damn he won the contest. As a former member of a team that discovered planets using gravitational microlensing I always wanted to get the chance to name a planet "Koozebane", which is the planet many muppet aliens (supposedly) come from. Instead they got named boring things like "MACHO-98-BLG-35". Lucky guy to name the planet.

Re:Koozebane

[DNS-and-BIND]

This is precisely why I want scientists naming planets according to an accepted method of taxonomy. Koozebane? Seriously? Because muppets? I like the muppets as much as the next man but come on - a heavenly object stuck with a ridiculous name like that forever just because some guy thought it would be funny? Ugh no.

Re:Vulcan

[VortexCortex]

It's been blown up by the Romulans, remember?

No, it was blown up by Young Darth Vader in an odd shaped Death Star. The names were changed to protect the innocent. That was just a practice round to prove to Disney that the director was capable of making Star-Wars movies.

Slashdot keeps getting shittier

[Nimey]

The fuck, man? Posting a story that 700-some idiots paid actual money to have a chance to give an exoplanet a non-official name and pretending like it means something?

Is this Slashdot or is it Entertainment Weekly?

not gonna happen

[dnorman]

um. no. some dotcom doesn't get to sell naming rights to planets. and some dude doesn't get to immortalize his papa because he can fill in an online form. gramps may have been awesome, but he doesn't get the nearest extra-solar planet named after him...

Re:Who gave IAU naming authority anyway?

[kinthalas]

So we vote for science now? Whatever is most popular gets to be true?

Who would you want to be in charge of this? I tend to think that an international committee of actual astronomers is probably going to do a better job than letting a company decide.

Nobody suggested this?

[xenoc_1]

Wouldn't the obvious choice be Zephram? After all, he was from Alpha Centuri before he was from Montana.

Well, depending on your subjective timeline, that is.

Either that, or name it Londo.

IAU, Please

[Dereck1701]

"the International Astronomical Union issued a press release stressing its authority as the sole arbiter of the exoplanet-naming process"

While this of course is at best a PR/Fundraising scheme, and at worst a scam, I don't particularly have much respect for the IAU either. Some of their past decisions are less about science, and more about politics. They CONSIDER themselves the "official" naming organization but in the annals of history I don't think their decisions are going to mean a hole lot.

Re:IAU, Please

[Nimey]

Is your butt still hurt about Pluto?

Mnemonic Device for Quag Meier's brother

[rmdingler]

Do you have a lot of Prince Albert in a U.S. can?

Re:Vulcan

[xstonedogx]

Star Wars happened "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ..."

...from the person telling the story.

"Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."

No need to wait

[Roger W Moore]

There is already a Disney World. ;-)