When social media got silly and 'helped' NASA name new planets

NASA recently announced the discovery of a large batch of Earth-sized planets. As astonishing as this breakthrough news was, what followed was not entirely difficult to imagine.

All in good spirit, though, NASA coined the hashtag #7NamesFor7NewPlanets on Twitter and asked the internet to suggest names for all these 7 planets. Without a doubt, the internet didn’t take the request seriously and had some fun!

People took inspiration from all sorts of things ranging from Donald Trump to Game of Thrones and Harry Potter. Not to mention, some were named, “rachel monica phoebe chandler joey ross and janice” while the others were “cranberry strawberry elderberry blackBerry red raspberry blueberry boysenberry”. Some were silly, some were truly remarkable. Creativity at its best!

Let’s take a quick look at how the internet had a field day at the expensive of the US space agency. 

It started like this..

#7NamesFor7NewPlanets?
TRAPPIST-1b
TRAPPIST-1c
TRAPPIST-1d
TRAPPIST-1e
TRAPPIST-1f
TRAPPIST-1g
TRAPPIST-1h

https://t.co/QS80AnZ2Jg pic.twitter.com/gis6Ba7UBu

— NASA (@NASA) February 24, 2017

And quickly escalated to this..

Tom Riddle's Diary
Marvolo's Ring
Slytherin's Locket
Hufflepuff's Cup
Ravenclaw's Diadem
Nagini
Harry Potter#7NamesFor7NewPlanets

— Alex (@the_alexb00k) February 24, 2017

This one
That one
The other one
No, that one
More to the left
To my left
Oh, forget it#7NamesFor7NewPlanets

— Momentum-tum-tum! (@MomentumComic) February 24, 2017

#7NamesFor7NewPlanets

The Fast and the Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious
Tokyo Drift
Fast & Furious
Fast 5
Fast & Furious 6
Furious 7

— Jordan Freiman (@JordanFreiman) February 24, 2017

#7NamesFor7NewPlanets
Pluto
Long Live Pluto
Pluto Forever
We Love Pluto
Screw You For Killing Pluto
Planet of the Keks
Pluto

— Idiocracy Rising (@TideOfFools) February 24, 2017

#7NamesFor7NewPlanets
Who
What
Where
When
Why
How
Whatever.

— Aisling Maes (@AisMaes) March 2, 2017

#7NamesFor7NewPlanets
La
La
Land
Oops
Sorry
Moon
Light

— Wus Poppin (@mrcringefest) March 2, 2017

#7NamesFor7NewPlanets
Far from Trump1
Far from Trump2
Far from Trump3
Far from Trump4
Far from Trump5
Far from Trump6
Far from Trump7

— Mike Pons (@mikepons) February 24, 2017

Earth 2
Earth 2s
Earth 2s Plus
Earth 2s Plus 128GB
Earth 2s Plus 128GB Black
Earth 2s Plus 128GB Rose Gold
Earth 3#7NamesFor7NewPlanets

— trutherbotred (@trutherbotred) February 25, 2017

New Earth, New New Earth, New New New Earth, New New New New Earth, New New New New New Earth, New New New New New New #7NamesFor7NewPlanets

— Anne (@whenineternal) February 24, 2017