There’s a Change.org Petition to Name a Newly Discovered Planet “Gallifrey,” That’s the World We Live In

A place where people can get together and ask for the important changes they want to see in the world sounds great. Then the Internet gets involved, and it becomes a place where people’s “important changes” are Death Stars and TARDIS colored Empire State buildings. Now they’re asking for a real planet to be called Gallifrey.

All right, so the Death Star was on the White House’s petition site and not Change.org, and the response it got was pretty humorous, but the principal is the same. We’re not sure exactly why Sam Menhennet, who started the petition, can’t just wait for the Doctor to go find the real Gallifrey, now that we know it’s out there. That’s a real thing, right?

Anyway, here’s the petition:

To:
Jana Tichá, Division F WG Small Bodies Nomenclature (SBN)
Rita M. Schulz, Division F WG Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)
Public Inquires, International Astronomical Union
Piero Benvenuti, International Astronomical Union
Public Inquires, International Astronomical Union
Public Inquires, International Astronomical Union
Mathias André, International Astronomical Union
Lars Lindberg Christensen, International Astronomical Union
Raquel Yumi Shida, International Astronomical Union
Thierry Montmerle, General Secretary, International Astronomical Union
Vanessa Bailey
Please rename the newly discovered planet “HD 106906 b” to Gallifrey! In honour of Doctor Who and its 50 years! even if it’s just a second name or officially recognised as “also known as Gallifrey”. Doctor Who is legendary, award winning, record breaking, and global and this planet deserves something special and supernatural as its name, How better to honor its existence than by dubbing it the home planet of our beloved time travelling alien, The Doctor?

#GallifreyFound
Sincerely,
[Your name]

We think a more compelling reason Menhennet could present for naming the planet Gallifrey would be that scientists have said the planet, which is strange at ten times the size of Jupiter in an orbit 20 times as far from its star as any of our planets, shouldn’t even be where it is. That’s because the Doctor had to move it to save everybody!

It’s already amassed signatures from 120,000 other people who think it’s really important that a real planet be named after a pretend one. Apparently, that’s where we’re at in the world. Online petition sites have basically become the same as school election ballots, where for every serious vote, there’s a write-in for “Seymour Butz.”

If this keeps going, we’re going to wind up with the Greendale flag from Community as the American Flag. Yeah, the one that says E Pluribus Anus.

(via Cnet, image via NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Meanwhile in related links

• There was also a Change.org petition to end Change.org, which didn’t work
• And there was one to get Ben Affleck out of the role of Batman, because that’s important
• And another one for Reggie Fils-Aime to be playable in Smash Bros.