3/06/2009 04:15:00 PM
Leave it to the nerds to come up with planet names like "Mr. Gassypants" or "Fantasculus" or "Pluto." Today we held a little naming and voting experiment in honor of tonight's launch of the Kepler telescope, which will (with any luck) discover Earth-sized planets beyond our solar system.
Our experiment yielded (at most recent count) 2,997 votes on 162 suggestions from 59 people, not bad for a Friday Funday! Here are the top ten exoplanet names, as determined by your votes:
- Sagan - Submitted by TaviGreiner
- Hawking - Submitted by joebarone
- Isis - Submitted by LunarMark
- Kepler - Submitted by Rob
- Gagarin - Submitted by joebarone
- Asimov - Submitted by Cariann
- Laika - Submitted by William James Pomerantz, Esq.
- Yuri - Submitted by joebarone
- Serenity - Submitted by Gonz0
- Heinlein - Submitted by CaitPenn
