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Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Volunteers from the Perth based citizen astronomy project theSkyNet have won the right to name a planet around a distant star as part of a global contest run by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The winning name is Thestias, the grandfather in Greek mythology of Pollux, which is the name of this ‘exoworld’s’ star.

Astronomy community groups around the globe were invited by the IAU to suggest names for 19 ‘exoplanet’ systems spanning the galaxy. The suggested names were then put to a worldwide public vote, and theSkyNet project’s suggestion came out on top for one of the 19 planet groups.

To determine which suggestion would be submitted to the IAU, theSkyNet’s volunteers were invited to pitch their best planet names to an internal competition.

Based at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), theSkyNet has over 200,000 volunteers globally, more than 7,000 of which are active at any one time.

After 43 ideas and an internal vote amongst volunteers, the submission was made for the planet around Pollux. Pollux is a bright star in the constellation Gemini, right near the constellation Orion, and the ‘saucepan’–a grouping of stars that’s well known throughout Australia.

The planet now known as Thestias is more than twice as large as Jupiter and was officially discovered in 2006 by astronomers in the United States.

As part of the naming of Thestias, the team at theSkyNet will also have the chance to name a Minor Planet within the Solar System’s asteroid belt, the name of which will become official sometime in mid 2016.

Volunteer Rich Matthews from the USA submitted the original proposal to name the planet around Pollux to theSkyNet, and after a change suggested by the IAU to avoid confusion with other objects in space, Thestias was officially named today.

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Kirsten Gottschalk

Astronomy Ambassador                                                ICRAR, Perth

Tel: +61 (0)8 6488 7771                      Mobile: +61 (0)438 361 876    Email: [email protected]

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