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Home , Circumpolar star, HD 8574, HD 8574 b, NameExoWorlds, Planetary system, Proper names (astronomy)

Public Naming of and Their : Implementation and Outcomes of the IAU100

Best Practice Best NameExoWorlds Global Project

Eric Mamajek Debra Meloy Elmegreen Alain Lecavelier des Etangs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Vassar College Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris Institute of Technology [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Eduardo Monfardini Penteado Lars Lindberg Christensen [email protected] NSF’s NOIRLab [email protected] Gareth Williams [email protected] Hitoshi Yamaoka National Astronomical Observatory of Guillem Anglada-Escudé Japan (NAOJ) Institute for Space Science (ICE/CSIC), [email protected] Queen Mary University of London Keywords [email protected] exoplanets, IAU nomenclature

The IAU100 NameExoWorlds public naming campaign was a core project during the International Astronomical Union’s 100th anniversary (IAU100) in 2019, giving the opportunity to everyone, everywhere, to propose official names for exoplanets and their host stars. With IAU100 NameExoWorlds the IAU encouraged all peoples of to consider themselves as “Citizens of the ”, united “under one sky”. The 113 national campaigns involved hundreds of thousands of people in a global effort to bring the public closer to science by allowing them to participate in the process of naming stars and , and learning more about in the process. The campaign resulted in nearly 425 000 votes, and 113 new IAU-recognised for exoplanets and 113 new names for their stars. The IAU now officially recognises the chosen proper names in addition to their previous scientific designations, and they appear in popular .

Introduction wished to contribute to the fraternity of all through international cooperation, the IAU people with a significant token of global is the authority responsible for assigning Over the past three decades, astronomers identity. official names to celestial bodies. With the have discovered thousands of planets IAU100 NameExoWorlds Global Project, orbiting other stars, which are known as As part of the IAU’s mission to promote the IAU aimed to offer all countries and as exoplanets. The results from the NASA and safeguard the science of astronomy many people as possible the opportunity Kepler mission1 suggest that most stars must have exoplanets. The ubiquity of planets orbiting other stars, and the commonality of chemical species which are the building blocks of , suggest that may be likely. These discoveries open an enormous perspective of humanity’s place in the cosmos.

Within the NameExoWorlds programme, the IAU encourages all peoples of Earth to consider themselves as “citizens of the Universe”, and set aside borders, wars, and religious and cultural differences for a universal, peaceful view of humanity as one.

While celebrating its first 100 (IAU100) of fostering international collaboration, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Figure 1. IAU100 NameExoWorlds website. Credit: IAU

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to participate in the official naming process shown that all over the world the population Steering Committee with members from all of exoplanets and their stars. is truly involved in the process, especially around the globe. The Steering Committee when local people interested in astronomy selected and assigned planetary to The IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach organise outreach activities related to each participating country, and developed (OAO) invited all IAU National Outreach the contest. Moreover, the involvement naming guidelines to be followed by the Coordinators (NOCs) and countries without is further increased when the population National Committees. The IAU president a NOC to compose a National Committee is given the opportunity to draw a link Ewine van Dischoeck invited Eric in their country responsible for holding the between the names given to the extrasolar Mamajek and Alain Lecavelier des Etangs national contest. systems and its own culture. to co-chair the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Steering Committee and Eduardo The project was officially launched on 6 IAU100 NameExoWorlds Steering Monfardini Penteado to be the project June 20192 (Figure 1) and came to an end Committee manager. Additional Steering Committee on 17 December 2019 when the results from members included IAU President-Elect 112 national campaigns were publicised. To coordinate the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Debra Elmegreen, former IAU General Results from an additional campaign in project, the IAU100 Secretariat set up a Secretary Piero Benvenuti, IAU OAO Mongolia took several weeks of additional deliberation and were decided in early 2020.

The national campaigns involved hundreds of thousands of people as a global effort to bring the public closer to science — learning more about astronomy and other planets — and by allowing them to participate in the process of naming stars and planets (Penteado et al., 2019). The names for the planets and stars in these 113 systems reflect the rich culture of human practices and natural wonders, all now immortalised in the sky (Figure 2).

Early Planning

In 2019, the IAU completed 100 years since its foundation. As decided in the XXXth General Assembly in Vienna, Austria in 2018, a -long celebration was organised to promote and support outreach and educational events taking place worldwide, as an effort to foster astronomy as a tool for development and diplomacy. One of the global projects proposed in the framework of IAU100 was the NameExoWorlds programme as a suitable way to pursue the central theme of IAU100, “Under One Sky”.

The 2019 edition of NameExoWorlds built upon the experience acquired in the previous edition of 2015, but now offered the opportunity for all countries and territories of the world to run their own national contests to choose names of an assigned and its host . This new format proposed by Piero Benvenuti, IAU General Secretary from 2015 to 2018, aimed at directly involving the population Figure 2. Example graphic for the Trinidad & Tobago IAU100 NameExoWorlds campaign, showing the winning within each country. The experience of selections for the exoplanet HD 96063b/Ramajay and its star HD 96063/Dingolay. Credit: IAU100 / Aneta NameExoWorlds in 2015 had indeed Magraf-Druc

Public Naming of Exoplanets and Their Stars: Implementation and Outcomes of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Global Project 23 Public Naming of Exoplanets and Their Stars: Implementation and Outcomes of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Global Project

International Outreach Coordinator (IOC) hence are locally visible at least partially As a result, a total of eight countries or Lina Canas, former OAO IOC Sze-leung during the year. In many instances the stars territories joined the project following the Cheung, IAU Press Officer Lars Lindberg are circumpolar. acceptance by the Steering Committee: Christensen, IAU100 Coordinator Jorge China Taipei, the Cook Islands, Costa Rivero González, and researchers Guillem The Steering Committee gave the National Rica, Madagascar, the Pitcairn Islands, Anglada-Escudé, Gareth Williams, Hitoshi Committees the opportunity to request Singapore, Paraguay, and Haiti. In some Yamaoka, and John Brown Paul Strachan. changes to their assigned systems as long of these geographical areas, the proposer as a reasonable reason was provided and later became a NOC. Exoplanetary Systems: Vetting and the requested planetary followed Assignment the rules of assignment, such as the star A total of 113 national campaigns and constraints. successfully carried out public naming Mamajek, Lecavelier des Etangs, and Reassignment requests taking into campaigns from the initial proposal to the Anglada-Escudé vetted exoplanetary consideration the nationality of a member acceptance of selected names (Figure 3). systems in early 2019, producing a list of of the discovery team, thus increasing Three countries were unable to complete systems for naming. The vetting process local engagement and publicity for the their contests. The main reasons were a involved searching the Washington Double campaign, were considered reasonable5. lack of resources to promote the project Star Catalogue3, the Gaia Data Release 2 on a national scale, which resulted in Catalogue4 and published journal papers. Establishment of the National no direct participation of the public, and To level the naming opportunities among Committees difficulties recruiting members to form a the national campaigns, each campaign National Committee. Social and political would yield a pair of names (an exoplanet The 2019 NameExoWorlds campaign disturbances, and security and safety and host star) for a system currently thought intended to broaden the participation of concerns also played an important role in to have a single exoplanet and no other the public, which was possible through deterring the successful conclusion of the known stellar or substellar companions. individual national campaigns. This was contest, in at least one case. the first time that such a project was The selected exoplanets are mostly proposed to the IAU National Outreach thought to be giant planets with Coordinators (NOCs) networks, and for Naming Guidelines between 0.1 and 5 masses and most, this was also the first opportunity to mostly discovered before 2013. All had lead an international project at a national The first IAU NameExoWorlds campaign in been detected via either the level. The participation of NOCs was 2015 kept very general naming guidelines or ground-based transit method. The host crucial for the success of this latest edition. based on those used for minor planets stars are all fainter than the naked eye The Steering Committee also accepted (Montmerle et al., 2016). For the 2019 with magnitudes between 6 and 13. The proposals to run campaigns from campaign, additional guidelines (Box selected range was chosen for educational autonomous territories (e.g Aruba) and 1) to improve the quality and diversity and practical purposes. Stars in this range other regions (e.g China Nanjing, China of the winning entries, to create long- require binoculars or small telescopes Taipei) in which the local community standing value to the IAU and the rest for observation, which encourages their displayed a high level of excitement and of the astronomical community, and to use. Additionally, there were too few engagement with astronomy. inform future naming guidelines7. The naked-eye host stars for all the countries, NameExoWorlds campaign was seen as a and the committee wanted to avoid any Most of the national campaigns had celebration of world culture and people’s controversy over whether or not a given committees chaired by the corresponding connection to the sky. country had a star visible to the naked NOC. In the cases where the NOCs eye or create a hierarchy among countries could not take the lead, another person One of the challenges was to inform the with the brightest naked-eye star. An initial was appointed by them. NOCs were public of which names the IAU already attempt was made to sort the candidates responsible for appointing other members recognised as “official”. In 2015 several by and assign them to countries to join the National Committees, which was top vote-getters duplicated existing minor based on the of the country’s recommended to be diverse in terms of planet names, and the committee spent capital. However, in several instances stars backgrounds and experience, and taking large amounts of time identifying and were assigned where there was an obvious gender balance into account. In total, handling these duplicates. Therefore, as connection between the exoplanet and the nearly one thousand people supported the a lesson learnt from the 2015 campaign, nationality of the discoverers or the location 113 National Committees. a single IAU of such names of the observatories used to discover the was created for the 2019 edition making it planet. For example, HD 109246 (dec +74o) In the absence of a NOC to lead the national easier to avoid conflicts with the roughly 22 was assigned to the northernmost country campaigns, a form was made available 600 IAU-recognised names for exoplanets, (Iceland, lat. +64o) and HD 137388 (dec through the official NameExoWorlds planets, planetary satellites, -80o) was assigned to the southernmost website6 for people and organisations minor planets, , and stars. (New Zealand, lat. -41o). All the systems interested in running the contest in their An electronic version of the file is being assigned have within 52o of national communities as an effort to offer prepared for long term curation and future the latitude of the capital of the country the opportunity to include and represent as use on the IAU website. that conducted the naming campaign, and many peoples as possible in the campaign.

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The Steering Committee allowed additional with input from the public and the National exoplanet and star, plus two backup direct queries by all National Committees Committee. names for each. regarding guidelines and naming rules, The Steering Committee then performed and in an effort to answer any further a validation process. When the highest- questions from the public a Frequently Results and Global Announcement ranked names followed the naming rules, Asked Questions was made available they were recognised as the official names online8. The voting results submitted by each of the respective “exoworlds”; otherwise, National Committee were composed of backups were identified and chosen. the highest-ranked name of the country’s After the vetting process was concluded National Campaigns and the Steering Committee had reached

The NameExoWorlds National Committees had approximately six months to run their campaigns, with an additional three Box 1. Additional Naming Guidelines months of earlier preparation.

The exact time a country could join the • The proposed names should be of things, people, or places of long-standing cultural, project was quite flexible, as it depended historical, or geographical significance, worthy of being assigned to a celestial object. on their availability. Most countries started • Although not necessary, the names may be drawn from themes related to the sky and their national contests on the official launch astronomy, or related in some way to the or a cultural in which the date, while others joined later on. exoplanetary system lies. • In recognition of the UN 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL2019)21, Most national campaigns were composed speakers of Indigenous languages are encouraged to propose names drawn from those of three main steps: (1) advertising the languages. contest, (2) collecting and down-selecting • Two (2) names should be proposed — one (1) for the exoplanet and one (1) for the star it name proposals, and (3) voting on the . finalists. National Committees were in • The two names should follow a common naming theme. The naming theme describing charge of the whole process, and free to how the names are related in some logical way should be summarised in a sentence or develop a timeline that best suited their two, and be broad enough that additional names could be drawn from the literature to local needs, as long as all results were name additional objects in that exoplanetary system in the future (e.g. additional planets delivered on the date established by the which might be discovered, additional stellar companions). Example: Rivers of country Steering Committee. XYZ. Fictional lands in 19th-century stories from country XYZ, etc. • Proposed names, after translation, should be: Advertising the Contest ○ Between 4 and 16 characters in length in Latin alphabet (including spaces or punctuation), The first step was performed in a very broad ○ Preferably one word, manner. Social media, altogether with a ○ Pronounceable (in some language), visually appealing artwork and design ○ Non-offensive, (including an official NameExoWorlds logo) ○ Not identical to, or too similar to, an existing name of an . Names was the most used method to advertise already assigned to astronomical objects can be checked using these links. the project, while other traditional media, ■ IAU names for minor planets in the Centre (MPC) database22, such as TV and radio, were also used on ■ Names of galactic and extragalactic objects in the Sesame name resolver23, a smaller scale. Many countries created ■ IAU names for planets, dwarf planets, and satellites24, websites to advertise their campaigns. ■ IAU names for stars25, One of the most critical characteristics of ■ IAU names for exoplanets26. NameExoWorlds was involving the general ○ In addition, proposed names may not be: public as much as possible in the naming ■ Names of a purely or principally commercial nature, process. Therefore, it was mandatory that ■ Names of individuals, places or events principally known for political, military or all names were proposed exclusively by the religious activities, public. ■ Names of individuals that died less than a century ago (1919), ■ Names of living individuals, Selection and Voting ■ Names of organisations related to the selection, ■ Names of pet animals, For the voting phase, in case the National ■ Contrived names (i.e. new, invented), Committee lacked the time or resources to ■ Acronyms, organise a secured vote open to the public, ■ Names that include numbers or punctuation marks (diacritics are acceptable), guidelines allowed a voting system where ■ Names that are principally known as trademarks or protected by intellectual the final decision was made solely by the property claims. National Committee or by a hybrid system

Public Naming of Exoplanets and Their Stars: Implementation and Outcomes of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Global Project 25 Public Naming of Exoplanets and Their Stars: Implementation and Outcomes of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Global Project

NameExoWorlds

National Campaigns 113 Total Participation 780 000 people Azerbaijan Malaysia Bangladesh Mongolia Bhutan Myanmar Brunei Nepal China Hong Pakistan Kong Palestine Albania Latvia China Nanjing Philippines Andorra Liechtenstein China Taipei Singapore Austria Lithuania India Belgium Luxembourg Indonesia South Korea Bosnia and Malta Iran Sri Lanka Herzegovina Netherlands Iraq Syria Bulgaria Norway Israel Thailand Croatia Poland Japan Turkey Cyprus Jordan United Arab Czech Republic Portugal Lebanon Emirates Denmark Romania Estonia Russia Finland Serbia 38 29 France Slovakia Germany Slovenia Europe Asia Greece Spain Hungary Sweden 24 Iceland Switzerland Ireland Ukraine Americas Italy United Kingdom and Algeria Morocco the Caribbean Burkina Faso Mozambique 18 Ethiopia Nigeria Africa Gabon Senegal 4 Ghana South Africa Ivory Coast Tanzania Argentina Haiti Oceania Kenya Togo Aruba Honduras Madagascar Tunisia Bolivia Mexico Mauritius Zambia Brazil Nicaragua Canada Panama Chile Paraguay Colombia Costa Rica Peru Cuba Puerto Rico Dominican Trinidad and Republic Tobago Ecuador United States El Salvador of America Australia New Zealand Guatemala Uruguay Cook Islands Pitcairn Islands

Figure 3. Worldwide distribution of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds campaigns. Credit: IAU100 / Aneta Magraf-Druc

a fi nal decision, the fi rst draft of the names of hundreds of thousands of people who media, such as a podcast in Argentina15, a and themes descriptions were sent to played a key role in proposing and voting TV show in Dominican Republic16, a report each National Committee, giving them for their preferred choices of names that by CNN17, and a video on Twitter of the the opportunity to address any questions represent their countries in the sky. moment when schoolchildren learnt their or concerns. Nearly 355 000 proposals name proposal was chosen by the UK were received (79.2% in Africa, 2.4% in The IAU now officially recognises the campaign18. The Wide Angle Search for Americas, 10.5% in Asia, 7.7% in Europe, chosen proper names in addition to their Planets (WASP) project also advertised and 0.2% in Oceania). For the total number previous scientifi c designations, and they NameExoWorlds and posted the final of votes, which was nearly 425 000, 3.6% appear in popular databases like SIMBAD10 results on their website19 for the assigned were in Africa, 9.3% in Americas, 34.6% and the NASA Exoplanet Archive11, and WASP planets. in Asia, 51.5% in Europe, and 1.0% in night sky programs like Stellarium12. Oceania. The official press release was shared Lessons Learnt to Inform Future The results show an enormous diversity of with the National Committees beforehand Campaigns meanings, ranging from names associated for national translation and tailored with indigenous culture to wonders of dissemination in each country. Considerations on “Contrived” Names nature, mythology, literature, history and more9. This is expected due to the broad The project was advertised in widely viewed Future public naming campaigns should public participation and refl ecting the fact channels, such as the New York Times13 in consider relaxing the guidelines with that the NameExoWorlds project was truly the US and Le Parisien14 in France. Results respect to “contrived” names. The exact a global event with the direct participation were also covered worldwide by different meaning of “contrived” was sometimes

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misunderstood or contentious. It was Vetting proposals before they are Notes decided to encourage names “of things, submitted to public voting may also help people, or places of long-standing cultural, to ease the process, but then more human 1 NASA Kepler Mission: https://www.nasa. historical, or geographical significance” resources are necessary to manage such gov/mission_pages/kepler/overview/index. — and discourage new, invented a high workload. html names (e.g. names based on acronyms, 2 Name an Exoplanet Press Release: https:// portmanteaus, or completely new words www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/ with no etymology). However, what could Final Remarks iau1908/ be considered as “contrived” in a given 3 Washington Catalogue: http:// culture may not be in another. For instance, The IAU100 NameExoWorlds Global www.astro.gsu.edu/wds/ it was decided that names which were pure Project, organised in the framework of 4 Gaia Data Release 2 Catalogue: https:// invention were considered “contrived”; this the celebrations of the 100th anniversary www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dr2 and Gaia rule led to rejecting some names built by of the IAU, was carried out from June Archive: https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/ composition of existing names that might to December 2019. It was designed to 5 The exception was WASP-161, whose dis- have been acceptable with more relaxed offer the opportunity to all countries and covery paper was in 2019. The Morocco guidelines. For future campaigns, the issue territories of the world to name an exoplanet National Committee requested WASP-161 as it of acceptable names, with a good balance and its host star, to raise awareness of the was the first exoplanet whose discovery paper between quality and originality, will need to vastness of the Universe and recognising was led by authors from Morocco (Barkaoui et al. 2019). Assessment of the published paper be reassessed. Earth as just one planet amongst many led to the conclusion that the planet is firmly others. Ultimately, NameExoWorlds invites detected. Considerations on “Names of organi- people to consider themselves as “citizens 6 Official NameExoWorlds Website: http:// sations related to the selection” of the Universe”, sharing a fragile planet www..iau.org that must be preserved. 7 Naming rules for exo-systems: http://www. The guideline prohibiting “Names of nameexoworlds.iau.org/naming-rules organisations related to the selection” The project was developed in collaboration 8 needed to be more specific, modifying it with the NOCs, as nominated by the OAO, NameExoWorlds FAQs: http://www.nameex- oworlds.iau.org/faqs to “Names of organisations, institutions who created National Committees to carry 9 and countries related to the selection”. out the project at a national level. The IAU100 NameExoWorlds Results Press For “non-commercial” and “non-political” participation of the NOC network proved to Release: https://www.iau.org/news/pressre- leases/detail/iau1912/ names, the guidelines must be clearer, be essential for the success of the project. 10 for example by giving some examples As a direct result of NameExoWorlds, SIMBAD Astronomical Database: http://sim- illustrating the rule. The proposed names some committee members proceeded to bad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/ which required the most deliberation become part of the NOCs network following 11 NASA Exoplanet Archive: https://exoplan- and follow-up research bordered on the their successful participation and wish to etarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/ commercial, political, and military - future continue to be actively engaged with the 12 Stellarium Astronomy Software: http://stel- naming campaigns will benefit from further IAU outreach initiatives and global network. larium.org/ clarification on these guidelines for the The NameExoWorlds project contributed 13 “So Long, Exoplanet HD 17156b. Hello proposers. to increasing even more this community, Sauron…?” by Dennis Overbye: https://www. bringing together different science nytimes.com/2019/06/14/science/exoplan- Clarification of “proper names” and outreach groups worldwide, strengthening ets-astronomy-space.html “alphanumeric designations” their actions and experiences. 14 “Les Français sont invités à trouver un petit nom à l’exoplanète HD 8574 b” by Vincent Members of the public and press were The campaign was considered the “project Gautier: http://www.leparisien.fr/sciences/les- francais-sont-invites-a-trouver-un-petit-nom-a- also sometimes confused assuming that with the greatest worldwide impact” in the 20 l-exoplanete-hd-8574-b-08-06-2019-8089272. the new IAU proper names “replace” the IAU100 Final Report , and was successful php alphanumeric designations, which is not the in engaging people across the globe to help 15 Malos Días programme on FM UTN case. Alphanumeric designations continue contribute diverse names to exoplanetary Mendoza 94.5: https://radiocut.fm/radiosta- to be officially regarded, and exoplanets systems. The results now appear in a tion/utnmendoza/lis- often have multiple designations — a fact popular planetarium software, which can ten/2019/12/19/10/48/53/?created_cut_ of life for astronomers that may catalogue be used as one of a vast range of other id=927957 the same object multiple times over the possibilities for outreach and educational 16 “Hoy conocemos el resultado del concurso years for different reasons. purposes enhancing the results to a wider busca nombre para un exoplaneta” from Esta audience, increasing awareness about the Noche Mariasela: https://www.youtube.com/ Time Allocation for the Vetting Process culture behind each chosen name now watch?v=5wQQR-Auwbw&fea- immortalised in the sky. It is hoped that ture=youtu.be Future public campaigns should the international astronomical community 17 “Nachtwacht? Mulchatna? 112 exoplanets incorporate more time allocation for the will continue to encourage future public and stars get new names from countries vetting processes, since it proved to be naming campaigns that build off of the around the Earth” by Katie Hunt: https://edi- a difficult, time consuming task, requiring success of IAU100 NameExoWorlds. tion.cnn.com/2019/12/17/world/exoplanets- long hours of focus and attention. new-names-scn/index.html

Public Naming of Exoplanets and Their Stars: Implementation and Outcomes of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Global Project 27 Public Naming of Exoplanets and Their Stars: Implementation and Outcomes of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Global Project

18 Video of the students celebrating on Twitter Eric Mamajek was supported by the (via user Claire C Smith): https://twitter.com/ ClaireCSmith/status/1207379385646551040 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract 19 WASP Planets press release: https:// with the National Aeronautics and Space wasp-planets.net/2020/01/05/the-iau-an- nounces-names-for-wasp-exoplanets/ Administration (80NM0018D0004). 20 IAU 100th Anniversary Celebrations: Final Biographies Report: https://www.iau.org/static/archives/ announcements/pdf/iau100-final-report- ann20019.pdf Eric Mamajek was co-chair of IAU100 21 International Year of Indigenous Languages: NameExoWorlds and is chair of IAU Division C WG Star Names. He is Deputy Program Chief https://en.iyil2019.org/ Scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Exploration 22 Minor Planet Center (MPC) database: Program and his research is on the forma- https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/ tion and evolution of stars and exoplanetary MPNames.html systems. 23 Sesame name resolver: http://cds.u-strasbg. Lars Lindberg Christensen is an astronomer fr/cgi-bin/Sesame and science communicator. He has authored 24 a dozen popular science books translated into Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: more than ten languages, and has directed https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/ more than 10 documentaries and planetar- Planets ium movies that have received critical acclaim 25 IAU “Naming Stars” theme: https://www.iau. around the world. He is responsible for the communication, education and community org/public/themes/naming_stars/ engagement for NOIRLab consisting of Cerro 26 IAU “Naming Exoplanets” theme: https:// Tololo, CSDC, Gemini, Kitt Peak and Rubin www.iau.org/public/themes/naming_exoplan- Observatory operations. ets/ Hitoshi Yamaoka is an astronomer and press and information officer. He is working as the IAU National Outreach Coordinator of Japan and is a committee member of IAU WG Star References Names.

Debra Meloy Elmegreen is President-elect Barkaoui, K., et al. 2019, “Discovery of Three of the IAU and Professor of Astronomy on New Transiting Hot : WASP-161 b, the Maria Mitchell Chair at Vassar College. WASP-163 b, and WASP-170 b”, AJ, 157, 43 Her research is on the structure and evo- Montmerle, T., et al. 2016, “Executive lution of through multiwavelength observations. Committee Working Group: Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites”, Eduardo Monfardini Penteado is an astron- Transactions of the IAU, 29A, 539 omer and specialist in science communica- Penteado, E.M., Rivero-Gonzalez, J., & tion and outreach. He was project manager of IAU100 NameExoWorlds and is currently work- Downer, B. 2019, “IAU100 NameExoWorlds: ing as IAU National Outreach Coordinator of A Call to Promote Global Citizenship”, CAP, Brazil. 26, 5 Gareth Williams worked at the IAU Minor Planet Centre for thirty years, before semi-re- tiring in early 2020. He still serves on the IAU Working Group on Small Body Nomenclature Acknowledgements and the IAU Working Group on Nomenclature. The authors want to thank the other members of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds Guillem Anglada-Escudé is an exoplanet researcher specialised in searches for nearby Steering Committee for their help: Piero possibly terrestrial planets. His interest is also Benvenuti, Lina Canas, Sze-leung Cheung, in communicating space sciences with the Jorge Rivero González and John Brown public, and led the Pale Red Dot campaign & Red Dots follow-up programmes (scientific Paul Strachan. We especially thank Piero and outreach) that reported the discovery of Benvenuti for initially proposing the idea Proxima b, the nearest exoplanet to the Solar for the IAU100 NameExoWorlds campaign System. while IAU General Secretary. The authors Alain Lecavelier des Etangs was co-chair also thank Bethany Downer for supporting of IAU100 NameExoWorlds and chair of IAU the dissemination of the project on social Commission n°53 “extrasolar planets” (2012- media, and Aneta Margraf-Druć for 2015) and Commission F2 “Exoplanets and the Solar system” (2015-2018). His research producing the artwork and design for the activity is on atmospheres of exoplanets and project. We also want to thank all National . Committees for their commitment to running the project on the national level.

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