For some time we have been purposefully calling this ‘Project IX’. This was done to prevent us defining the project before it has really started up. We also thought that you all might have some thoughts on the matter. Hence, we’re asking for suggestions for a name for Project IX.
What we’re not going to call it is ‘Star Formation Zoo’. That is one of the names this project has had internally, but we don’t like it. Sure, Project IX is essentially a Zoo about star formation but this doesn’t feel like a good name. In fact, it doesn’t have to be a ‘zoo’ at all. Solar Stormwatch and Project VII don’t have ‘zoo’ in the title… but I can’t talk about that.
What might inspire a name? Hopefully the science or the imagery – but really anything that comes to mind. We’re dealing with beautiful infrared, dusty images of cold regions of the Milky Way [UPDATE: and also some hotter things like young starts and heated material]. We’re looking at bubbles and young stellar objects – but hoping to spy more. (The Spitzer image above is one I call ‘the dancers’, by the way.)
If you have any ideas on what we can call Project IX, we’d love to hear them. Please leave suggestions in the comments below and we’ll start collating them. If a consensus cannot be reached, we can try a vote of Zooniverse users. Anyone can suggest a name, so if the science team is reading this, feel free to pitch in as well.
UPDATE: After letting the comments run for a while it seems that ‘Milky Way Zoo’ and ‘Stellar Zoo’ are the two more popular names. So here’s a poll – which name should we pick?
[poll id=”2″]
The Milky Way Project Blog 
Star Birth ZOO.
Will do the Secret projects better be hidden well as ZOOITES are very good at Finding things!
How about simply MilkyWayZoo?
How about Nursery Zoo?
I like Star Birth Zoo
LOL, I suggested Starbirth Zoo at the pub in Oxford, but I see I’ve been beaten to it twice here! 😀
I suppose “Spot the Babies” sounds a bit too silly . . . and “Spot the Protos” too obscure . . . “Protostar Zoo”?
I was going to say Nursary Zoo too, so my vote is for that.
Oooh! Proto, that’s a good word….. Hmmmm
Or I suppose we could call it “Nebulous Zoo” or “Nebulous Mysteries” if you want to leave it vague . . . or “Protozoo” hehe
I like MilkyWayZoo as astrofrog suggested.
Maybe ProtoStar Hunters or Bubble Zoo?
. . . or “Project Nebulous” . . .
. . . shut up, Alice . . .
. . . by the way, I just made this Object of the Day.
Raising Stars
Spotting Baby stars should be something along the lines of ‘Stellar Nursery’ surely and a picture of a star in a nappy.
Star Birth Zoo (as already suggested) seems a wee bit cumbersome, so I would second Alice’s Starbirth, but without the word Zoo, and written StarBirth.
There are many precedents for two capitals in the same word like that (e.g. MasterCard, MySpace, YouTube, BlackBerry, PowerPoint) and I’ve even seen GalaxyZoo.
So that’s my choice: StarBirth
KinderStarten . . .
How about – StarbonZoo or StarbornZoo ? The first one is better because it is shorter yet the sound – BON – reflects on both meanings of birth or born.
JKHC.
On further thought – StarburstZoo may even be better along the same line of thinking. It is more vividly descriptive.
JKHC.
StarGarten
How about NebulaeZoo? I guess we will be classifying more than one (duh!) And it will make FermatsBrother very happy. 🙂
EGG Zoo?
(As in Evaporating Gaseous Globules.)
Nursery Zoo?
How about “Stellar Cradles” ?
The picture could be that of a star
in an old-fashioned rocking cradle
Since star-forming regions are called HII-regions,
I suggest HII(H-two)Zoo.
My 2nd suggest is “Becoming a star”.
Upcoming Stars
Stars of the Future (or Future Stars)
Bubbles ‘n Stars (or Baubles ‘n Stars)
Stars, a Talent Quest (or Baby Stars, a Talent Quest)
Celestial Bling
Dances with Stars (or Dancers with Stars)
Although I hate it myself : everytime I think about this project, BabyZoo comes to mind.
Please, don’t use it ! 🙂
A Star Is Born
My 3rd suggestion is “Star factories” (This term was used in some news about star research.)
Concerning my suggestion “Star factories”:
Maybe it is not a good suggestion: As I now found out, the title of a book about astronomy contains this term.
It is quite difficult to make a good and also special suggestion:
I had some other ideas, which I would liked to suggest, but when checking in the Internet, I found out that these are names of f.e. companies,films,games,cars.
I am really looking forward to this new project, I suggest Nebulai Zoo.
Thank you
Laura , aged 12
Star Cradle ?
I had been leaning towards Nursery Zoo, but I think I like Star Cradle better.
I suggest *Star*Party@galaxyzoo***.
how about Nebulosis ?
Besides I suggest *Newcomer Stars*.
New Age (Stars or Zoo)
What about something as simple as Stellar Zoo? I know this project is more about the star formation angle but I can think of many star-related projects that we could tackle. Stellar Zoo could be for stars what Galaxy Zoo is for Galaxies (i.e. Galaxy Zoo, Galaxy Zoo Mergers etc.)
Just a thought…
My vote goes to Stellar Zoo !
Mine goes for Stellar Zoo too 😀
I think Arfon’s right, and there are already quite a few threads sitting rather uncomfortably in Galaxy Zoo that could be transferred into a Stellar Zoo to start it off.
How about Star Bright.
If it becomes Stellar Zoo, that could include the Supernovae . . .
Stellar190? What’s your opinion? 😀
‘Mr. Wiggle’s House of Stars’?
No? Okay then, Stellar Zoo works for me.
@Alice
I like Stellar Zoo! But then I’m biased 😛
I like the idea The Dancer. For me the picture is: Dancer Heaven
I would vote for Milky Way Zoo to describe the family of Zooniverse projects involving these data. I like HtwoZoo for this first incarnation searching for bubbles. Really this project should be Galaxy Zoo and the original should have been galaxies Zoo. 😉
They look like a red eyes dragon (or frog) to me. Is Dragon in the zoo?
Developing the Stellar Zoo theme …
Stary Zoo
StarZoo (has a nice ring to it, when spoken)
OohStars!Zoo (not pronounceable)
ZooZooStellar (play on vuvuzela)
ZooZooStellar! Maybe we can work this into the project somewhere…
I like Milky Way zoo because there are other things to discover in this dataset besides star formation. There are external galaxies, star clusters, supernovae remnants, and more!
I tend to agree with M Povich that Galaxy zoo is best but it’s already taken!
Hey there, just wondering why you don’t make a subsection “poll” in the forum, featuring percent and balks on suggested names, also for future polls. Assume the attention reaches more zooties in the forum. Just my2cent.
@zooite – we don’t have a forum for Project IX. But I have added a poll to this page for the naming. Go vote!
Wow, thanks Robert for the rapid update. I’ve voted stellar zoo, but since it’s evolving, how about stellar evolution project?
I meant the Galaxy Zoo forum, because Chris pointed me here, I thought of the idea to implement a poll section there.
http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=278239.0
The Stellar Evolution Project (TSEP)
EvoStar
StellarEvoZoo
StellarEvoDevo (EvoDevo is from biology)
Stellar, the Evo Zoo
I quite like The Stellar Evolution Project – anyone else think that has a good ring? We can add it to the poll if there’s a few folks that like it…
The Stellar Evolution Project (TSEP)
+1
Have added ‘The Milky Way Project’ as a user-friendly variation on TSEP. TMWP or just MWP if you like.
I like ‘Stellar Evolution Project'(SEP)Nice and seasonal! On a serious note some of the other names may not carry enough weight. There’s a lot of research that’s being carried out and a lot of time being put in. Which some names could trivialise.
Wow – with only a few hours left to vote, new entry: ‘The Milky Way Project’ seems to be gradually overtaking ‘Stellar Zoo’ FTW!
In memory of Ed Wood, I humbly suggest “Project 9 In Outer Space”.
The Milky Way Project clinched it in the final hours. So we have a name. More blogging tomorrow on that one…
What the heck? Stellar Zoo was vastly outnumbering it until the last minute! Ah well!
TheMwayP 😛
STEP wasn’t suggested, which is imho userfriendly. ‘Stellar Evolution Project’ wasn’t even listed as a choice 😦
The Milky Way Project
I suggest the name “Stellar Zoo”, will be the right choice for this project.