The planetary system “μ Arae,” has a new name: from now his star is called Cervantes and the four planets that are orbiting Quixote, Rocinante, Sancho and Dulcinea.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) official in charge of assigning names to celestial objects, just announced this decision after summoning NameExoWorlds, a public contest to rename the planetary systems found in recent years.
Cervantes was the name of the Spanish candidacy, a name promoted by the Spanish Society of Astronomy and the Planetarium of Pamplona for this international competition.
With over 38,000 votes, the proposal was the winner of the contest in which competed with six options for four countries (Portugal, Italy, Colombia and Japan).
From now on, the planetary system “μ Arae”, located 49.8 light-years away in the constellation Altar (Ara), can be called both ways for its scientific nomenclature or by their new names. Cervantes, Don Quixote, Rocinante, Sancho and Dulcinea
The vote was open online from August 12 until October 31. Everyone could vote, with the only limitation of one vote per device.
The campaign to solicit votes, dubbed #YoEstrellaCervantes, was present throughout the voting process in social networks and through its own website (www.estrellacervantes.es) .
The NameExoWorlds contest the International Astronomical Union (IAU) allowed for the first time in history that the general public could participate in choosing new names for stars and exoplanets.
It was a success: you could choose between 274 names proposed by astronomical organizations from 45 countries, and more than half a million votes were received from 182 countries .
Spain was the third country in percentage of participation, behind only India and the United States. Among the other new names adopted include those from mythological figures from different cultures, as well as scientific or fictional characters, ancient cities or words of disappeared languages.
Source : EFE
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