The red giant star has about the same mass as our sun, but a ten times larger diameter. It lies in the rather inconspicuous constellation Giraffe not far from the Polarstern and is visible with the binoculars and for very experienced observers under best conditions also with the naked eye.
So far, he wears the little poetic catalog number HD 32518. He is orbited every 157.5 days by a huge planet with about three times the mass of Jupiter. This is currently called HD 32518b (Planet).
But that will change now.
From now on, all people living in Germany or visiting a German school abroad can vote on the Internet via five pre-selected name suggestions. The campaign was initiated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The name that prevails in the vote at the end is included in the official sky maps of the organization. Similar actions are also underway in other states.
In a first step, school classes, kindergarten groups and associations of amateur astronomers had submitted a total of 264 name suggestions for the two heavenly bodies in the northern starry sky until 20 September. A six-member research jury then selected the five proposals that are now being voted on.
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"The selection of the last five names, which is being voted on, was not easy for us - there was a whole range of imaginative and beautiful names," said the jury.
The selected name pairs are:
- Planet Reticulata orbiting Star Peralta (part of the name of two giraffe species, because the star is found in the constellation Giraffe),
- Planet Neri orbiting Star Mago (name of an Ethiopian National Park that serves to protect giraffes and a river there)
- Planet Rosenrot orbits Stern Schneeweißchen (fairy-tale characters),
- Planet Pioneer orbiting Star Voyager (NASA spacecraft, "Voyager 1" flies toward the constellation Giraffe) and
- Planet Gulliver circles around Stern Brobdingnag (referring to Jonathan Swift's novel "Gulliver's Travels" and the Land of the Giants described there).
Researchers know more than 4000 confirmed exoplanets. Last week, the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to discover the first celestial body orbiting a distant sun. (Read here a detailed appreciation of the winners.)
That exoplanets in addition to the catalog numbers also get a real name, but is extremely rare. So far, there was such an action once, in 2015. A name suggestion from Germany was not selected at that time. This year, however, one name per participating country is definitely important. Online voting will run until 14th November.
