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Star and exoplanet named “Mahsati” and “Ganja” in Galaxy

17 December 2019 17:27 (UTC +04:00)

On occasion of the 100th anniversary of International Astronomy Union (IAU), the results of the contest held under the motto “Give names to IAU100 exoplanets” arranged in over 110 countries of the world have been disclosed to the public, Shamakhy Astrophysical Observatory named after N.Tusi told APA.

The IAU has assigned to each country the shining stars which are seen from that country and can be observed even by small telescopes so that the countries would give names to those stars. A contest has been arranged in the participating countries by National Coordinators, the public proposals have been accepted and 10 best proposals complying with conditions of the contest have been selected and put up for public voting. Based on the results of the voting, 3 proposals having polled the greatest number of votes have been submitted to IAU for evaluation. Some 780000 amateur and professional astronomers from over 110 countries of the world took part in this multi-phased process.

The star # HD 152581 situated in “Ophiuchus” stellar constellation and the exoplanet # HD 152581b moving around that star have been assigned to Azerbaijan for being named in the framework of the contest.

Over one thousand proposals have been recorded regarding the names covering such topics of various contents as historic personalities, geographical names, architectural monuments, etc. have been recorded during the contest arranged in Azerbaijan by Shamakhy Astrophysical Observatory named after N.Tusi under ANAS, Tusi-Bohm Planetarium and Azerbaijani representation of Astronomic Coordination Department of International Astronomy Union. The recorded proposals have been evaluated and 10 proposals have been selected and put up for voting. The 3 proposals having polled the greatest number of votes in the public voting have been submitted to the International Astronomy Union.

The International Astronomy Union has evaluated the results of the contest and disclosed the names of the winners. The “Mahsati” and “Ganja” names proposed by Natella Kerimova for the star and extrasolar planet (exoplanet) assigned to Azerbaijan have been selected as winners of the contest held under the motto “Give names to IAU100 exoplanets”.

Note that the selected names will be used in parallel with the existing scientific nomenclature.