Stargazing Live - Help us name a Galaxy!

• by Thomas_J moderator

  WOW!!

  A great lens candidate featured on tonight's BBC Stargazing Live (Jan 9).

  Were you lucky enough to classify this one?

  Now we need a name!!

  Share your ideas here 😃

  Thomas

  Posted January 9, 2014 9:54 PM

• by Capella05 moderator

  Just remember it needs to start with a #9 and well, err, no swear words 😃

  Posted January 9, 2014 10:22 PM

• by Budgieye moderator

  Neineyeohpee (9iop),

  Orange Peel Arc

  Orange slice Arc for the nearly Einstein ring one http://talk.spacewarps.org/#/subjects/ASW0009l59

  Posted January 9, 2014 10:29 PM

• by IanAndJem

  looks like a smiley with orange lips #9smiley : )

  Posted January 9, 2014 10:46 PM

• by JohnAlt2 in response to Thomas J's comment.

  "#9pMoore", "#9 SirMoore", "#9Sirpeemoore" etc.
  Or
  "#9 StarGazer" after the show
  "#9 Zooniverse" after the system we are using

  Or due to image appearance:-
  "#9 EightBall"

  less serious...
  "#99 Red Balloon", "#9th Gate"

  Posted January 9, 2014 11:37 PM

• by uckle

  #9red-eye-shift? or more prettily #9iris

  Posted January 9, 2014 11:50 PM

• by simonedi

  "#9 crowdscience" (bit like crowd funding but science....)

  Posted January 10, 2014 12:04 AM

• by Jamehall

  I was lucky enough to spot this one! Can't believe it was on stargazing live, I missed it tonight and not on iplayer yet:(
  How about '9 red flares'
  Or '9 zilla' as it looks like an angry red eye of godzilla

  Posted January 10, 2014 12:21 AM

• by triple_harpist

  I was lucky enough to classify this one too !
  What about:-
  '9 day wonder' or '9 lives'

  Posted January 10, 2014 12:52 AM

• by puddings in response to Thomas J's comment.

  9 stargazing live

  Posted January 10, 2014 1:11 AM

• by uckle

  #9goggle or #9gibbus as in gibbus moon

  Posted January 10, 2014 1:18 AM

• by uckle

  sorry that's gibbous

  Posted January 10, 2014 1:23 AM

• by sunrise1

  9-WarpFactor
  or the more obvious 9-Stargazing2014
  😉

  Posted January 10, 2014 2:21 AM

• by Capella05 moderator

  Nice Star trek reference 😃

  I will take a few days to think of it, not everyday you get to name a galaxy!

  Posted January 10, 2014 2:36 AM

• by nil-desperandum

  #9Tulip ?

  Posted January 10, 2014 5:45 AM

• by kirsty1981

  I was one of the first 6 to discover this one, was a bit put out that it was named after just one of us...slightly unfair I think!

  Posted January 10, 2014 7:23 AM

• by caractacus

  i would suggest STARGAZERS GALAXY.

  this will keep the participants happy and the BBC.

  Posted January 10, 2014 9:41 AM

• by uckle

  Although we all have our little suggestions for a name,I am getting the feeling that people who recognized it the first time they happened on it are feeling that to name it after the very first person goes against the ethos of a community effort.So i do not think it should be a particular surname but something that reflects all our efforts.Just my opinion.

  Posted January 10, 2014 11:44 AM

• by Budgieye moderator

  "The Beeb" (nickname for BBC)

  though I like caractacus' "Stargazing" edit: the image looks like an eye

  Stargazing Arc

  Posted January 10, 2014 1:37 PM

• by Capta1n

  #9ion, I did classify this one...whoop whoop!

  Posted January 10, 2014 2:10 PM

• by SPACECHILD1

  #9 SNOWGLOBE

  Posted January 10, 2014 3:49 PM

• by sunrise1

  Just a question here, obviously the 6 people marked this galaxy, but did they have to comment also, to be the "discoverers"?

  Posted January 10, 2014 3:56 PM

• by sunrise1

  Following on from 9-WarpFactor - maybe it could be 9-WarpFactor6, as a nod to the 6 who discovered it!

  Posted January 10, 2014 3:57 PM

• by rob_t in response to Thomas J's comment.

  How about 9wow2014

  Posted January 10, 2014 4:16 PM

• by zbish

  How about #9 eyedrop galaxy as that what it looks like and I felt very privileged to be on stargazing live as one of the discoverers

  Posted January 10, 2014 4:19 PM

• by ozzhawk

  9 S.G.D

  Posted January 10, 2014 5:00 PM

• by Janmc

  To reflect the community spirit how about 9crowdquest or 9myriad.

  Posted January 10, 2014 6:17 PM

• by jack.rolls

  9gazer seeing as it was the star gazers who spotted it 😃

  Posted January 10, 2014 6:23 PM

• by jack.rolls

  or 9 gazer 6 for the 6 who spotted it n the 1st place

  Posted January 10, 2014 6:27 PM

• by jbro1971

  As most of these names are like catalogue numbers, haw about
  9BBCSGL2014A

  Posted January 10, 2014 8:17 PM

• by Jamesbuchanan

  #9walsh after Mr Dennis Walsh who found the first gravitational lens in 1979, unfortunately his son Tim died recently and it would perhaps be a fitting tribute to the family.

  Posted January 10, 2014 9:13 PM

• by norro1983

  #9estrellas ocultas - hidden stars in spanish

  Posted January 10, 2014 9:27 PM

• by Sharne

  9earth

  Posted January 10, 2014 9:58 PM

• by JoeShmo1979

  Looks like the lensed object is very redshifted.

  Posted January 10, 2014 10:04 PM

• by kevincouchman

  #9MajorTom after our Moderator !

  Posted January 10, 2014 10:56 PM

• by sstarling53

  9StarGazey

  Posted January 10, 2014 11:33 PM

• by sstarling53

  9SpecSavers

  Posted January 10, 2014 11:34 PM

• by sstarling53

  9AllOfUsSawThis

  Posted January 10, 2014 11:41 PM

• by sstarling53

  9Peekaboo

  Posted January 10, 2014 11:44 PM

• by gem14

  how about 9ja? pronounced nine yea as in the German word for yes!

  Posted January 10, 2014 11:56 PM

• by sstarling53

  9Jantastic

  Posted January 10, 2014 11:56 PM

• by gem14

  or oncloud9 😃

  Posted January 10, 2014 11:59 PM

• by gem14

  ongalaxy9!

  Posted January 11, 2014 12:02 AM

• by sstarling53

  I saw it as well - we all deserve the credit!
  Those that came after the first six gave corroboration to the first sight. If we hadn't agreed it would've got passed over.

  So how about
  9FolkGaze

  Posted January 11, 2014 12:05 AM

• by gem14

  99%galaxy1%we'renotsureyet

  Posted January 11, 2014 12:10 AM

• by gem14

  99%there!

  Posted January 11, 2014 12:10 AM

• by gem14

  9days'wonderthisisnot

  Posted January 11, 2014 12:16 AM

• by gem14

  999what'syouremergency?weneedanamefast

  Posted January 11, 2014 12:29 AM

• by gem14

  9darter
  need I say anymore? - just beautiful and perfect and rare like the newly discovered galaxy, enjoy 😃

  Posted January 11, 2014 12:42 AM

• by uckle

  doublevision?

  Posted January 11, 2014 5:26 AM

• by bluesam

  9Aurora?
  It appears a bit like one, it was one of the themes of the show and it represents the "aurora" of the universe...

  Posted January 11, 2014 6:10 AM

• by ashimmin

  As one of the original six spotters my pitch would be for 'Gretel' This is the name of my goddaughter who has just turned four. She's been to the Observatory at Greenwich and has always been fascinated by planets and had them hanging from the ceiling in her bedroom. She's already got a strong science leaning and I this would be a great way to inspire a possible future astronomer for the next generation.

  Posted January 11, 2014 8:10 AM

• by uckle

  9Cyclops

  Posted January 11, 2014 8:50 AM

• by Damon22

  I'd go for #9Iris - looks apt to me.

  Posted January 11, 2014 10:58 AM

• by Damon22

  or #9Aurora sounds great, bluesam.

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:01 AM

• by gem14

  9warper or 9whopper

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:42 AM

• by gem14

  9thlifegoneascatkilledbycuriosity
  ha - made me smile just like I did when I saw new galaxy - 😃

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:43 AM

• by fiona543

  9aurora sounds great

  Posted January 11, 2014 4:16 PM

• by gem14

  90210

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:30 PM

• by gem14

  9/1/14

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:30 PM

• by gem14

  99peoplecanbewrong1canberight

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:32 PM

• by gem14

  9to5Whatawaytomakealivin

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:39 PM

• by gem14

  9to5yeahtheygotyouwheretheywantyou 😃

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:39 PM

• by gem14

  9-ball

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:47 PM

• by gem14

  9inEminorFromtheNewWorldDvořák...The Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World, Op. 95, B. 178 (Czech: Symfonie č. 9 e moll „Z nového světa“), popularly known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from 1892 to 1895. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular in the romantic repertoire. In older literature and recordings this symphony is often indicated as Symphony No. 5. Neil Armstrong took a recording of the New World Symphony to the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969. I think that this is fitting 😃

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:51 PM

• by gem14

  9inEminor for short

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:51 PM

• by gem14

  9Yggdrasill...it's from Norse Cosmology

  Posted January 11, 2014 11:58 PM

• by gem14

  9thdoctor - like my Dr Who link?!

  Posted January 12, 2014 12:00 AM

• by gem14

  9purity like it is 900 fine or 90% pure

  Posted January 12, 2014 12:03 AM

• by gem14

  9-dart finish

  Posted January 12, 2014 12:05 AM

• by gem14

  9HD

  Posted January 12, 2014 12:05 AM

• by gem14

  9thheaven or 9thgalaxy...possibly

  Posted January 12, 2014 12:07 AM

• by gem14

  99centgalaxywhopper - sounds tasty and value for money 😛...99%galaxy1%unidentifiedfloatingobjects

  Posted January 12, 2014 12:35 AM

• by gem14

  9naoi - from the Irish word for 9

  Posted January 12, 2014 12:39 AM

• by gem14

  9kokono - 'kokono' is a Japanese word which means 'here'.

  Posted January 12, 2014 12:57 AM

• by gem14

  911TheJourney, 911ANightToRemember, 911ThereItIs, 911InteractiveElement - all apt 911 song titles and I was a fan 😉

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:03 AM

• by gem14

  9timestimetravel

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:06 AM

• by gem14

  9totheuniverse

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:07 AM

• by gem14

  9ofhearts

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:12 AM

• by Alan_Whitford

  9 Gaze

  So fitting considering

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:20 AM

• by birch66

  #9lovepotion-yoda

  Posted January 12, 2014 3:37 AM

• by dianaz

  #9Diana's Bow

  Posted January 12, 2014 11:47 AM

• by gem14

  9star or 9star hotel sounds like luxury

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:07 PM

• by gem14

  9dream or 9d-ream or 9d-reamstar and 9d-reamglorius

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:10 PM

• by gem14

  9galánta which is the Irish word for beautiful or beautiful one.

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:11 PM

• by gem14

  9thwonder or 9wow

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:12 PM

• by gem14

  9novum or 9novumgalaxy

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:22 PM

• by gem14

  9pulchra - beautiful in latin

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:23 PM

• by gem14

  9mirum - amazing in latin

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:24 PM

• by uckle

  9worldwideweb

  Posted January 12, 2014 1:52 PM

• by Thomas_J moderator

  Great suggestions. Keep them coming 😃

  Posted January 12, 2014 4:26 PM

• by uckle

  9 peeple

  Posted January 12, 2014 6:31 PM

• by gem14

  9super

  Posted January 12, 2014 9:52 PM

• by gem14

  9galaxymaxi

  Posted January 12, 2014 9:55 PM

• by gem14

  9Pertainym - phenomenal in latin

  Posted January 12, 2014 10:03 PM

• by gem14

  9formosus, 9nitidus, 9speciosus, 9decorus, 9bellus, 9gratus, 9maiestus, 9magnificus or 9augustus - beautiful/majestic in Latin again - lovely language.

  Posted January 12, 2014 10:24 PM

• by sstarling53

  9citizenwatch

  Posted January 13, 2014 1:19 PM

• by sstarling53

  9peoplescience

  Posted January 13, 2014 1:19 PM

• by sstarling53

  9citizenlens

  Posted January 13, 2014 1:21 PM

• by sstarling53

  9RedLen

  Posted January 13, 2014 1:21 PM

• by sstarling53

  9zooniverse

  After all wouldn't been possible without Zooniverse. I enjoyed using it. Ver y well designed, intuitive, robust software, and it processed millions of images. It used a vital resource - Peoplepower!

  Posted January 13, 2014 1:28 PM

• by sstarling53

  9peoplepower

  Posted January 13, 2014 1:28 PM

• by gem14

  9pouvoirpopulaire

  Posted January 13, 2014 2:23 PM

• by Gordon_3D

  Three Options!

  9 Days Remix is my galaxy name suggestion. #9DaysRemix

  or 9 Days The Remix #9DaysTheRemix

  or even... #976Remix 976 Remix

  Posted January 13, 2014 2:42 PM

• by c_cld

  crowdsource

  Posted January 13, 2014 2:48 PM

• by Notthere

  I'm just wondering. Brian Cox said this (double) galaxy's light was coming from 11 billion light years ago, and then said the galaxy was now 40 billion light years away. Wouldn't that require our galaxies to be moving at more than the speed of light apart? Am I missing something?

  Posted January 14, 2014 4:51 AM

• by Gordon_3D in response to Notthere's comment.

  Hi Notthere!

  The Galaxy in the foreground is a couple of billion light years away, says Chris Lintott (35 mins. into Episode 3)...

  The lensed galaxy in the background... we are seeing it as it was something like 11 billion (earth) years ago.

  (and the universe is only 13.8 billion years old as many would believe 😛 ).

  So, the light from the galaxy has taken 11 billion (earth) years to reach us, which is about 40 billion light years

  (that's distance. Unit of distance light travels in one year = a light year. That's about 6 million million miles).

  Posted January 14, 2014 11:42 AM

• by uckle

  Please can you define your units of a billion so I can work it out.I know a billion here is not a billion in the USA.

  Posted January 14, 2014 5:55 PM

• by Gordon_3D in response to uckle's comment.

  In the UK all my life (since 1975) I have recognised a billion the way the US recognises it - one thousand million, 1,000,000,000.

  I am no expert, so I shall add a quote from "Universe Today": 1 light year is the distance light can travel in vacuum in one year’s time. This distance is equivalent to roughly 9,461,000,000,000 km or 5,878,000,000,000 miles.

  Prof Brian Cox can be quoted:
  A light year is the distance light travels in one year through a vacuum, about 9.46 trillion km.

  I have always thought of a light year as 6 million million miles and have seen it in published documents.

  So the info above confirms a trillion as a million million, so a billion is a thousand million.

  Posted January 14, 2014 7:14 PM

• by uckle

  many thanks Gordon 3D.I think it makes it easier for us non astronomers to understand if we just talk in distances and say that when the galaxy sent out the light we are receiving now it was 11 billion light years away.Since then we have both been ACCELERATING away from each other and are now 40 billion light years apart,so neither of us has been travelling at the speed of light cos if we did we'd never see each other at all.Is this wrong?

  Posted January 14, 2014 7:33 PM

• by Gordon_3D in response to uckle's comment.

  I would say that when that distant galaxy lit up, it sent out its light and eventually reached our powerful telescopes 11 billion years later.

  I could not attempt to factor in the added expansion variable.

  If light takes 11 billion years to reach us from early on in the young universe, it has also travelled so far.

  Measured in billions or trillions of light years, the clever astronomers can put a figure on how far away the galaxy is. They can even factor in expansion I am sure. But I can't. 😕

  But if it is certain that it took 11 billion years for the light to reach us, then based on the speed of light it should be straightforward to work out the distance. Expansion aside! So I like to think it has always been roughly 40 billion light years away from us.

  Posted January 14, 2014 10:40 PM

• by Misty_Blue

  #9 Mandela

  Posted January 14, 2014 11:49 PM

• by Leah_Fiona

  Why 9, anyway? What's the significance of 9?

  9 Peekaboo Pinksmith

  Posted January 14, 2014 11:50 PM

• by Budgieye moderator in response to Notthere's comment.

  The universe is expanding faster than the speed of light.

  see Any quasar with z>1 is going away from us in excess of c ?

  http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=277872.msg471437#msg471437

  Posted January 19, 2014 9:00 PM

• by gavinrider

  40b LY makes no sense to me!

  Posted January 20, 2014 5:38 PM

• by JeanTate in response to gavinrider's comment.

  Why not?

  Posted January 22, 2014 11:31 PM

• by gem14

  hi all. did we get a final name for the galaxy yet?!

  Posted January 29, 2014 4:13 PM

• by Capella05 moderator

  Tha last I heard - not yet!

  Posted January 29, 2014 6:02 PM

• by gavinrider in response to JeanTate's comment.

  Response to JeanTate:

  Assume the galaxy and ours are some unknown distance X apart when the light starts its journey towards us. It arrives at our galaxy 11bn years after it started out, during which time we will have moved a distance Y further away from the source galaxy, due to the expansion of the universe.

  Therefore, X + Y = 11 bn LY.

  Assume the source galaxy has moved away from us at the same speed as we have moved away from it, because the whole universe is expanding at the same rate. So it will have travelled a distance Y further away from us relative to its original position. This means our separation now, when we detect the light, is X + 2Y.

  If X + Y = 11 LY, then the largest possible separation between us now would be 22 bn LY, (as X, the original separation, tends towards zero). Note: at the limit with X tending to zero, the outward motion of the universe would be close to the speed of light in all directions, making our relative speed if we are moving in opposite directions tend towards 2c.

  If we were almost next to the source galaxy at t=zero and we have moved apart at relative velocity of 2c for 11 bn years, our separation now would be 22 bn light years.

  At least, that is how I calculate it. How could the separation now possibly be as much as 40bn LY?

  Posted February 3, 2014 6:54 PM

• by uckle

  To Gavinrider
  I don't agree.
  We were in a different position ,say Q , when the light started out of course and moved further away relative to that galaxy but our position when we received the light,i.e.now, is X= 11bn LY not X+Y.
  I assume that the astronomers will work out from the red shift of that light how fast it was moving away then and factored in an acceleration to arrive at their figure of X+Y=40 bn LY now.I wonder how many other galaxies got in the way on its travels and
  To my simple mind you only have to move apart at half the speed of light in opposite directions for it to appear you are travelling relatively at the speed of light .Since light travels at c which is the maximum then the maximum rate of expansion is 2c unless of course there are lots more dimensions or space is so warped that this makes no sense at all.
  Is anyone actually listening to our questions I wonder? I would love to hear the definitive explanation.

  Posted February 7, 2014 9:42 PM

• by ElisabethB moderator

  Hi

  I found this explanation :

  If the Universe is only 14 billion years old, how can we see objects that are now 47 billion light years away?

  When talking about the distance of a moving object, we mean the spatial separation NOW, with the positions of both objects specified at the current time. In an expanding Universe this distance NOW is larger than the speed of light times the light travel time due to the increase of separations between objects as the Universe expands. This is not due to any change in the units of space and time, but just caused by things being farther apart now than they used to be.

  What is the distance NOW to the most distant thing we can see? Let's take the age of the Universe to be 14 billion years. In that time light travels 14 billion light years, and some people stop here. But the distance has grown since the light traveled. The average time when the light was traveling was 7 billion years ago. For the critical density case, the scale factor for the Universe goes like the 2/3 power of the time since the Big Bang, so the Universe has grown by a factor of 22/3 = 1.59 since the midpoint of the light's trip. But the size of the Universe changes continuously, so we should divide the light's trip into short intervals. First take two intervals: 7 billion years at an average time 10.5 billion years after the Big Bang, which gives 7 billion light years that have grown by a factor of 1/(0.75)2/3 = 1.21, plus another 7 billion light years at an average time 3.5 billion years after the Big Bang, which has grown by a factor of 42/3 = 2.52. Thus with 1 interval we got 1.5914 = 22.3 billion light years, while with two intervals we get 7(1.21+2.52) = 26.1 billion light years. With 8192 intervals we get 41 billion light years. In the limit of very many time intervals we get 42 billion light years. With calculus this whole paragraph reduces to this.

  Another way of seeing this is to consider a photon and a galaxy 42 billion light years away from us now, 14 billion years after the Big Bang. The distance of this photon satisfies D = 3ct. If we wait for 0.1 billion years, the Universe will grow by a factor of (14.1/14)2/3 = 1.0048, so the galaxy will be 1.0048*42 = 42.2 billion light years away. But the light will have traveled 0.1 billion light years further than the galaxy because it moves at the speed of light relative to the matter in its vicinity and will thus be at D = 42.3 billion light years, so D = 3ct is still satisfied.

  If the Universe does not have the critical density then the distance is different, and for the low densities that are more likely the distance NOW to the most distant object we can see is bigger than 3 times the speed of light times the age of the Universe. The current best fit model which has an accelerating expansion gives a maximum distance we can see of 47 billion light years.

  Lots more info on that site : Frequently asked questions in cosmology

  Hope this helps ! 😄

  Posted February 10, 2014 4:50 PM

• by Gordon_3D in response to ElisabethB's comment.

  That was enlightening - thank you!
  Now to get my head around the fact that some galaxies are rushing away from each other as fast as 70,000 miles a second...

  Posted February 11, 2014 2:00 PM

• by gem14

  Hi everyone at Stargazing. Just wondering how the process of naming the galaxy is coming along at the moment? Haven't heard much in a while. Thanks

  Posted March 13, 2014 9:54 AM

• by Capella05 moderator in response to gem14's comment.

  No news yet, but behind the scenes, it still being referred to by it's Spacewarps designation of ASW0009io9 or 9io9 for short.

  Science is never quick 😃

  Posted March 13, 2014 10:12 PM

• by gem14

  Thanks for the update. Don't they say that "you can't hurry a good thing".

  Posted March 14, 2014 9:24 AM

• by gem14

  Hi all. Just wondering what's the latest update on the naming of the Galaxy?
  Thanks

  Posted April 13, 2015 12:53 PM