 In 2019, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) celebrated its 100 year anniversary. As part of the centenary celebrations, the IAU ran the NameExoWorlds contest. As part of this contest, the IAU assigned a star with an exoplanet to each participating country. Astronomers in each country ran a contest where members of the public were invited to propose a set of names for the star and exoplanet. Canada's contest was run by the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA). The IAU assigned Canada the star HD 136418 and its exoplanet HD 136418b, and over 500 pairs of names were submitted in the contest. Since many Indigenous names were proposed, Wilfred Buck was asked to review the proposals, in particular one proposal to use the names for mother and child in the Cree language made by teacher Amanda Green. Wilfred Buck made some changes to her original proposal, and the final names chosen for the star and exoplanet were Nikawiy for the star and Awasis for the exoplanet. CASCA credits both Amanda Green and Wilfred Buck for the pair of names.
NameExoWorlds contest In 2019, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) celebrated its 100 year anniversary. As part of the centenary celebrations, the IAU ran the NameExoWorlds contest. As part of this contest, the IAU assigned a star with an exoplanet to each participating country. Astronomers in each country ran a contest where members of the public were invited to propose a set of names for the star and exoplanet. Canada's contest was run by the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA). The IAU assigned Canada the star HD 136418 and its exoplanet HD 136418b, and over 500 pairs of names were submitted in the contest. Since many Indigenous names were proposed, Wilfred Buck was asked to review the proposals, in particular one proposal to use the names for mother and child in the Cree language made by teacher Amanda Green. Wilfred Buck made some changes to her original proposal, and the final names chosen for the star and exoplanet were Nikawiy for the star and Awasis for the exoplanet. CASCA credits both Green and Buck for the pair of names.
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NameExoWorlds contest
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Amanda Green and Wilfred
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