Final Countdown in ‘People’s Choice’ Contest to Choose a Name Alpha Centauri's Planet

BOULDER, Colo. - April 11, 2013 - PRLog -- First Planet Around Alpha Centauri: “Alpha Centauri Bb”

What name does the public want?

Uwingu Funding Education via Contest

Embargoed Until 10 a.m. Eastern Time, 11 April 2013.

Boulder, Colorado—Space company UwinguTM’s ‘People’s Choice’ contest to determine the public’s choice name for the nearest known planet around another star ends Monday at midnight Eastern time in the US. Currently that planet, orbiting alpha Centauri, is called alpha Centauri Bb.

Anyone can nominate a name to honor a friend, colleague, loved one, or to recognize a place name, an author, an artist, or a sports team, for example.

The name getting the highest number of votes will be declared the public’s choice for Uwingu to use as the name for this mysterious new world. Never before has the public been asked to choose its favorite name for a planet.

Name nominations are $4.99; votes cost $0.99. Proceeds from naming and voting fuel new Uwingu grants to fund space education projects affected by NASA’s sequestration cuts. Uwingu’s exoplanet naming efforts were recently featured in Time Magazine, at http://science.time.com/2013/03/07/name-your-own-exoplanet-for-4-99/

The namer of the most popular name for alpha Centauri Bb will receive prizes from Uwingu and will be recognized in a press release about the winning name. Uwingu is also giving prizes for runner-ups, and for all names that reach thresholds of 100, 1,000, and 10,000 votes. The current front runner name, Amara, was nominated by  Zeb Gray to woo his true love, a story featured this week in the news at MSNBC: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/09/17675308-written-in-the-stars-how-an-alien-planet-helped-a-man-woo-his-true-love?lite

“Time is running out on this contest and we’re excited to see how it ends—just about 100 hours to go now” says astronomer and Uwingu CEO Dr. Alan Stern. He added, “And what name will be the winner at the end is still wide open, you can participate at www.uwingu.com .”

       ####

About Uwingu: Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili, and is pronounced “oo-wing-oo”) was formed by a team of leading astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives, and educators. The company includes space historian and author Andrew Chaikin, space educator Dr. Emily CoBabe-Ammann, citizen science leader Dr. Pamela Gay, author and former museum science director Dr. David Grinspoon, planet hunter Dr. Geoff Marcy, planetary scientist and aerospace executive Dr. Teresa Segura, planetary scientist and former NASA science boss Dr. Alan Stern, and planetary scientist and CEO of the Planetary Science Institute, Dr. Mark Sykes, former Executive Director of the Planetary Society Dr. Louis Friedman, and space artists Jon Lomberg and Dan Durda. In September, Uwingu successfully concluded one of the 25 largest Indiegogo crowd-funding campaigns ever to launch an ongoing series of public engagement projects. Visit Uwingu’s web site at www.uwingu.com to learn more.

For more information, contact Dr. Alan Stern at stern@uwingu.com, or at 970-281-SKY1. Follow Uwingu on Twitter at UwinguSky; and friend Uwingu on Facebook.