International Astronomical Union

After seven months of travel, NASA's rover Perseverance is preparing to land on Mars on Thursday, which will be the start of a years-long search for evidence of ancient microbiological life on the Red Planet.

The Mars 2020 mission, launched in late July from Florida, includes the largest vehicle ever sent there.

Turkey has chosen the names for a far-flung planet and its local star, said a Turkish astronomer on Dec. 17.

In June, Turkey got the naming rights to the star known as WASP-52 as well as its exoplanet, WASP-52-B, under a campaign by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The Solar System has at least two more planets waiting to be discovered beyond the orbit of Pluto, Spanish and British astronomers say.
      
The official list of planets in our star system runs to eight, with gas giant Neptune the outermost.
      

“Tatooine” is, you will surely agree, a pretty stupid name for a planet, but there are so many Star Wars fans that some unfortunate world is bound to end up being called exactly that. On the whole, though, giving more user-friendly names to newly found planets orbiting other stars is a good idea.