Thunder Bay astronomy group choses 'truth' & 'hope' to name planetary system
'Truth and hope, for it is these we seek when we explore the universe,' Thunder Bay group writes
Amateur astronomers in Thunder Bay, Ont., chose "truth" and "hope" to win the chance to officially name a planetary system.
Members of the Thunder Bay Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), along with more than a dozen other astronomy groups from around the world, were competing in the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) NameExoWorld contest.
The entry from Thunder Bay obtained the most on-line votes, the RASC announced in a news release Tuesday.
For the contest, the IAU compiled a list of 20 potential star systems, known to have at least one planet orbiting the star.
The Thunder Bay astronomers chose a star in the constellation Andromeda, which has only one planet, but it's about five times heavier than Jupiter.
The star is visible to the naked eye from late summer to early winter, the RASC release explained.
Before the contest, the star was called 14 Andromeda, and the planet was known as 14 Andromedae b.
Now, thanks to the centre's winning entry, the star can officially be called Veritate, and the planet can be called Spe, said the RASC.
Veritate and Spe are latin words for truth and hope.
"The human race is driven by an innate need to explore the worlds around us and world beyond. We seek scientific knowledge as well as existential enlightenment to help us define and understand our place in the Universe. To that end, we have selected the themes of Truth and Hope, for it is these we seek when we explore the universe and discover new worlds. And with these discoveries of new worlds, perhaps we will find new truths and hope for our ultimate quest of finding out: why are we here? We have turned to the Latin language as one of the founding languages of human civilization to help us in our naming process," wrote the Thunder Bay centre in its submission to the IAU.
The Thunder Bay centre also receives the additional honour of choosing the name of a minor planet within our solar system, said the RASC.
At this point, the group is considering naming the planet "RASCThunderBay".