Controversy Over Planet-Naming Contest Heats Up

The company behind an exoplanet-naming contest says it's fighting to restore its business and its reputation in the wake of some disapproving words from the International Astronomical Union.

Officials with the space-funding company Uwingu say a press release the IAU issued on Friday (April 12) misrepresents the nature of the contest — which aims to pick a "people's choice" name for Alpha Centauri Bb, the closest known exoplanet to Earth — and caused sales to fall by a factor of 100 over the weekend.

"They basically said we're conducting a scam, and nothing could be further from the truth," said Uwingu CEO Alan Stern, a former NASA science chief who also heads the agency's New Horizons mission to Pluto. "They basically put us out of business, and they've ruined our reputation." Read more...