[katieHaylor (OP)]

Madhu asks:


Just a silly question. Can we have a star named after us? (Probably if I pay?)
Who names the stars and what naming convention is followed?

Can you help?

[evan_au]

You can name a star (or comet or nebula) if you discover it:
- The star Ross 128 has had strange radio signals detected recently. This is named after the stellar catalogue produced by Ross
- Space probe Philae landed on the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which was only discovered in 1969
- Messier has his name attached to a list of nebulae and galaxies - that frustratingly weren't comets

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the official organization that names objects in the sky.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_naming_conventions

However, there are many private organizations who will let you name a star, an asteroid or a crater on the Moon. They have absolutely no official basis, but they will send you (or your friend) a nice certificate and a map showing where "their" namesake is located.

The MOPRA radiotelescope in Australia was mapping dust clouds in the Milky Way galaxy, when the government cut its funding. They ran a crowdfunding campaign to keep going; they offered to name a molecular cloud after you (or send you a T-shirt).

[David Cooper]

If you want to, you can start up your own company and sell people the right to name all the stars in the sky such that they appear on a list of names assigned to stars solely by your company. The only people on the planet who would ever know that any of the stars have been given new names in this way would be the ones who have made the mistake of buying the right to name a star through your company, because no one else will recognise those names as carrying any weight at all, and astronomers will certainly never pay any attention to them. So, you might as well just give the money to a good cause and assign the name of your choice to the star of your choice for your own purposes without worrying about the name appearing on any silly list - you will know that you have named it and that it's special to you, and that's all that counts. Your name will also be as good as any other name that's been given to that star and it doesn't matter if the only people using that name will be you and the person you named it for. You will also feel much better about having put the money into a good cause rather than handing it over to a money-grabber who is only interested in making money by exploiting people's desire to do something beautiful. There is nothing beautiful about rewarding such people.

[profound]

Madhu asks:


Just a silly question. Can we have a star named after us? (Probably if I pay?)
Who names the stars and what naming convention is followed?

Can you help?

=

I would like to have a a galaxy named after me.