NameExoWorlds Canada |
Contest Introduction
Welcome to the Canadian home of the International Astronomical Union's NameExoWorlds Contest! This competition offers teams from across the world an opportunity to choose an alien world (and its host star) that will be studied by the James Webb Space Telescope and to propose a name that will be officially recognized by the IAU. On this website, you can find information about how to put a team together, an introduction to the exoplanet systems available as naming candidates, contest rules regarding how to name a chosen exoplanet, ideas for outreach activities your team can do, a contact request form for help from a professional astronomer and other useful resources to help teams in their propsal. Feel free to explore our pages on the tabs above and start putting your plan to name an exoplanet in motion!
Contest Registration & Submitting a Naming Proposal
Registering your team for the contest only takes place at the end of the process - once you have formed a team, chosen an exoplanetary system, decided on a name, written up a proposal with explanation of the the rationale behind your name choice, conducted an outreach activity and put together a report on it. In other words, you register for the contest when you submit your naming proposal to the contest organizers. However, it is highly recommended that you review the name proposal submission form (linked below) before you start your work on this project.
To register your team and submit your complete name proposal (written format + video) (use this form). If you can’t access Google Forms or do not have a Google account, please complete this form and submit it by email to nameexoworlds2022@oao.iau.org.
The deadline for each team to submit a naming proposal has now been extended to no later than December 11, 2022. You can either submit the proposal on the Google form provided above or use the editable pdf form provided in the second link above and email it as an attachment to the IAU contest website also listed above.
Featured Exoplanet Naming Candidate
Below, you'll find information about a highlighted exoplanet from the list of 20 candidates to be given an official name in this contest. You will also see a star chart showing this exoplanetary system's location in the night sky. The featured exoplanet will change regularly, so come back to this site in the future to see other exoplanets from the candidate list highlighted!
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Another way to find this information is to make use of NASA's exoplanet exploration tool at https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/eyes-on-exoplanets/#/
Sharing in the Wonder of Exoplanets and Astronomy
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A big part of the fun in learning about exoplanets and discovering their secrets is sharing that exploration and sense of wonder with others. That's why, in this contest, teams are asked to carry out some sort of outreach activity to engage members of the public. To help teams promote their activities and spread the word, we've set up a NameExoWorlds Canada YouTube channel!
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Send us a video of your exoplanet team activity or outreach event at nameexoworldscanada@gmail.com so that we can share your news with others on our Youtube channel!
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The video below is a nice introduction to the contest by our website friend, Anton Petrov. Please also check out and support his Youtube channel for his fascinating daily take on astronomy-related news and events!
NameExoWorlds Partners
