The planet, WASP-62b, and its host star WASP-62, were discovered using SuperWASP, one of the telescopes near the town of Sutherland in the Northern Cape. The International Astronomical Union has therefore invited South Africans to vote on the new name for the planet.

“This is your chance to name a whole world,” the International Astronomical Union says. Unfortunately, people will not be able to submit their own name ideas, and will instead have to vote on one of four alternatives. These four names have been shortlisted by a panel of judges, with each having a counterpart for the star.

All of the names have been chosen for their African flavour. One of the options is to name the planet Sceletium and the star Buchu. These are types of fynbos found in the Sutherland area, “almost as numerous as the stars and as beautiful – a reflection of the above, so to speak,” the official competition website states.

The next motivation says that the place where the WASP-62 System was discovered should be celebrated in the name. The suggestion is therefore to call the planet Gannaga and the star Roggeveld. The Roggeveld mountain range is near Sutherland and the Gannaga pass is one of the passes crossing the mountain range and is fitting, “as the detection of WASP-62b was obtained by the planet’s path crossing the star”.

The third option is to name the planet and the star Krotoa and Naledi. Krotoa is considered a Mother of Africa, while Naledi means star in Sesotho. The final alternative is to call the celestial bodies Ingoma    and Ubunye. This naming scheme celebrates South African diversity by naming the planets after traditional South African dances, “as the diverse planets unite in dancing around their star”, the motivation states.

‘Ingoma’ is a popular dance in the Zulu tradition performed at important transition events in the person’s life. ‘Ubunye’ means ‘unity’ in the isiZulu language. Future exoplanets orbiting ‘Ubunye’ could be named after traditional dances from our various other cultures, expanding on the theme of “diverse people unite”.

An exoplanet is a planet outside of our solar system, and WASP-62b was found in the constellation Dorado. Dorado was named in the late 16th century and is now one of the 88 modern constellations. Its name refers to the dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus), which is known as dorado in Portuguese, although it has also been depicted as a swordfish.

WASP-62b is giant gas planet with a diameter which is about 1.3 times that of Jupiter. This means you could fit roughly 1000 Earths in it. It orbits WASP-62 every 4.4 days. The distance between the star and the planet is only 1/17-th of that between the Earth and our Sun, so WASP-62 b is too hot for liquid water to exist, and one has to assume there can be no life on it.

Despite this, the discovery is significant. There are currently 4093 confirmed exoplanets that have been discovered, and the majority of these were found by the Kepler space telescope. Wasp-62b is the first exoplanet discovered by African astronomers, bringing South African scientists into a very select group, and the competition will mark this exoplanet and its star as the first to be named by the general public.

Those wanting to cast their vote can do so on https://bit.ly/wasp62b. Voting is open until 14 November 2019.