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Did you always want to name a planet? Here is your chance for an exoplanet. For Greece. The IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) is running a global event, a competition to let every country name one exoplanet and its star!
Greece is among the countries participating in global event with its own assigned planet: HAT-P-42 b, a yellow, dwarf star in the constellation of Hydra.
The planet is 1,458 lights years away from Earth, where 1 light year equals with 9.5 trillion km.
It was discovered in 2011.
HAT-P-42 b is visible in the constellation of Hydra and belongs to the category of “Hot Jupiters,” class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods.
It moves in a circular orbit around its parent star HAT-P-42 and completes a full orbit in circumstance in 4.64 days. The parent star is visible from our hemisphere with a apparent size of 12.7 mag. It is a star dwarf of the G-type such as the Sun is.
In Greece, the NameExoWorlds action is coordinated by the National Outearch Coordinator Astrophysics Prof. Kanaris Tsinganos, in collaboration with the Hel.A.S.
Speaking to Athens news agency amna, Tsinganos said “having the opportunity to adopt and give a name to a new planetary system is particularly important in Greece, because the Greek culture, language and mythology have been widely used by the International Scientific Association for the Naming of Celestial Bodies, like all the planets and larger asteroids of our planetary system.”
The Name event started on 1. June 2019 and will conclude on 30. September 2019.
To propose a name for HAT-P-42 b and its parent star HAT-P-42 click here.
As the submission is in Greek a short explanation: Required are: First Name, Surname, Profession, Institution, Telephone, E-mail, Name for HAT-P-42b, Name for HAT-P-42 as well as short -max 100 words – justification for the proposed names.
Proposed names are suggested: one word Greek names from Greek History and Greek Culture, eg Greek names, from Greek mythology, from Greek historical place names and names of prominent Greeks from science and culture.
Required * are email, two names for the exoplanets and justification.
For other countries check with IAU100 website in Get Involved.
The post Name an exoplanet for Greece: Global project NameExoWorlds by IAU100 appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
