The Universe is a spectacular place of billions of known stars and now, thousands of recently discovered exoplanets. Exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, were first discovered only in the 1990s and currently number just about 4000. The ancient civilizations of Greeks, Romans, and Arabs are responsible for the names of the most well-known stars and planets. Mars and Venus are named after the Roman god of war and goddess of love respectively. The brightest star in the sky, Sirius’ name is Greek in origin, meaning “glowing” or “scorching”. Bright stars such as Aldebaranand Deneb have names that are Arabic in origin. So, could there be a star and an exoplanet with a Trinbago name to immortalise us also like the ancient civilizations? Indeed, we have just that opportunity.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the largest astronomical society of professional astronomers in the world. In 2019, it celebrates its 100th anniversary with several events during the year. Of special note is its initiative “Name Exoworlds”. In this programme, countries around the world get to name a host star and its exoplanet. The competition is to name a designated system of the host star and its exoplanet, jointly called “exoworld”. This name becomes its official name apart from its scientific designation.
It was thus a great delight when the proposal from Trinidad and Tobago was accepted for this “Name Exoworlds” initiative and a system of the host star and exoplanet was assigned to us for a national competition to name. It must represent the cultural or geographical heritage of the country.
The exoworld system assigned to Trinidad and Tobago is HD 96063 (host star) and HD 96063b (exoplanet). The system is 515 light years away. Our fastest probes would take over ten million years to get to it. The star HD 96093 is a yellow, giant star located in the Leo constellation. While it cannot be seen with the naked eye, it is easily visible using small telescopes and binoculars. HD 96093 is as massive as our Sun; however, it is almost four times larger in size and has an effective temperature of 5308 K (Kelvin, the base unit of temperature in the International System of Units). Calculated to be twice as old as our sun at 9 Billion years, HD 96093 has at least one extrasolar planet in orbit around it – exoplanet HD 96093b.
HD 96093b was discovered in 2011 orbiting around its star at almost the same distance the Earth orbits around the sun. With a mass of 1.27 Jupiters, it takes 362.5 Earth days to complete one orbit around its star.
The public can submit names, as part of the competition, which is open until October 15, 2019, via the online portal at https://www.nameexoworldstt.com/. The national committee which is chaired by me (Dr Shirin Haque) is overseeing the competition. I have been appointed as the National Outreach Coordinator from the IAU and the national committee has members from The UWI, Trinidad and Tobago Astronomical Society, Caribbean Institute of Astronomy, Trinidad and Tobago Astro Club, The UWI Star Gazers, Trinidad Radio Astronomy Community, and NIHERST.
A shortlist of 10 pairs of names for the host star and the exoplanet will be voted on by the public from October 30 to November 5, 2019 and the final decision will be announced by the IAU in December 2019. The grand prize is a telescope, with hampers for runners up and tokens for finalists. The grandest prize for all of us of is the honour of a star and an exoplanet having a Trinbagonian name. What an opportunity to be immortalised among the stars! Move over Greeks, Romans and Arabs, here comes a Trinbago star and planet! Interested persons can contact Dr Shirin Haque at shirin.haque@sta.uwi.edu
Dr Shirin Haque is Astronomer at The University of the West Indies.
