This is very cool: a competition has been set up to allow school kids to suggest names for the small solar system bodies that orbit beyond Neptune!
The competition has been OKed by the International Astronomical Union, which has a subcommittee that names such objects. The ages groups for submissions are divided up into ages 1-11, 12+, and school groups.
Emily at The Planetary Society Blog has more details as well. If you’re a teacher or student, then you definitely should jump in; this will make a great school project. But hurry: the competition closes on May 30, so get naming!
May 3rd, 2010 at 10:03 am
Colbert?
In all seriousness, I think this is a very good idea.
May 3rd, 2010 at 10:26 am
Here are some naming suggestions:
Planet X
The KBO formerly known as Prince
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:31 am
Hello!
This competition is a one nice opportunity to involve kids and students. We at “Astronomers Without Borders” are encouraging kids from schools around the Globe to participate.
Thanks for posting.
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:33 am
Oh, I have to send this on to my daughter’s teachers!
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Hey, now’s the time for all Futurama fans to get “Urrectum” officially on the books!
May 3rd, 2010 at 1:24 pm
[...] genoemd naar het meisje dat ooit de naam bedacht van Pluto en die vorig jaar is overleden. Bron: Bad Astronomy. Gerelateerde Astroblog:30 jaar geleden werd Charon ontdekt Tags: Eris, Kuiper Belt Objects, [...]
May 3rd, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Of course the creationists have to muck that up.
One notes that they never ever seem to do any research of their own (and no, “bioinformatics” does not count); they just read up on other’s work and write “articles” from those. Maybe some of their rich evangelist friends could help.
May 3rd, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Hmm, maybe I’ll pose this one for my Astro class. Though with a bunch of spring term high school seniors, it might not be that impressive.
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Thanks for this info, I teach community college astronomy, and a lot of my students have their own children who can enter!
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:02 pm
I just sent mine in. I chose a contraction of two Greek words meaning far and sun. The name is Makrilios
May 4th, 2010 at 1:26 am
[...] Competition for kids to name KBOs | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine [...]
May 4th, 2010 at 5:16 am
#7 Reynold:
A “creationist astrophysicist”????!!!!! Now that’s the oxymoron to end them all!
May 4th, 2010 at 6:41 am
Just so long as we don’t end up with planet Spongebob!
Tatooine, on the other hand….
May 4th, 2010 at 6:52 am
I passed this along to my kids’ teachers. One e-mailed me back saying that she thought it was a great idea. Now, let’s see if they do anything with it at the school…
SionH:
Only if it’s square and yellow. (There are already some porous candidates. I don’t know how to test absorbency, though.)
May 4th, 2010 at 10:37 am
In response to #7. Interesting how the author doesn’t name the school he’s attending, simply uses “an accredited school in the USA.” Sounds like a lesson learned through the school of hard knocks. Of course, given some of the oversights in the article, I hope he didn’t go to my school.
Nope! UC Boulder. Google robert newton creationist to get his whole story…it’s interesting.
May 5th, 2010 at 8:56 am
Yes, an excellent idea. Kids will name them as good or better than the IAU people.
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