The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is giving you a chance to choose names for 20 distant planetary systems that include 15 stars and 32 exoplanets. People who discover planets and stars usually name them, meaning it's a rare opportunity being provided by IAU to amateur astronomers.

More than 200 names have come from astronomy clubs and other interested parties from 45 countries, said the IAU. The names have been reduced to a shortlist. The NameExoWorlds website allowed voting on the list from Tuesday onwards.

The voting will run through October 31. The world's astronomers are looking forward to search planets and solar systems that have higher chances of hosting life.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope helped researchers in July confirm the discovery of the closest rocky planet outside the Milky Way. Excitement also surrounds scientists for a solar system about 200 light-years from Earth. It is near star HIP 11915 that contains a large gaseous planet similar to Jupiter.

The IAU's NameExoWorlds competition is asking you for voting on a list of proposed common names for the 32 exoplanets, as well as most of their host stars. No registration and no fee are required for the voting on the NameExoWorlds website.

Only one vote can be casted by each computer, smartphone or tablet for each of the 20 exoplanetary systems, IAU representatives said.

This is not the first time when such a competition has been announced to name exoplanets, as Uwingu has also come up with several such efforts over the past few years.