 In July 2014 the International Astronomical Union launched a process for giving proper names to certain exoplanets and their host stars . The process involved public nomination and voting for the new names . In December 2015 , the IAU announced the winning name was Galileo for this planet . The winning name was submitted by the Royal Netherlands Association for Meteorology and Astronomy of the Netherlands . It honors early @-@ 17th century astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei . 
