Adopt-a-Star To Fund Research

Travis writes "An international collaboration of astronomers is taking a unique approach to funding their research, through an 'adopt-a-star' program. Preparing for the launch of NASA's Kepler satellite next February, the group will help characterize thousands of stars that the mission will be searching for evidence of Earth-like planets. For a small donation, early adopters get a certificate by email and updates when any planets are found around their adopted star."

Comments

Sol

[jawtheshark]

I call dibs on "Sol" ;-)

Re:Sol

[Mordok-DestroyerOfWo]

Stars are cute when they're young, but they grow up

Re:Sol

[residieu]

Can I sue you when I get sunburn?

Re:Sol

[jawtheshark]

Sure, but I'm going to charge you per kilowatt you use up every day.

Re:Sol

[mplsdeveloperdude]

Stars are cute when they're young, but they grow up

Worse still, some of them go bad and -blow- up...

They all blow up at some point.... I'd be more worried about them losing their temper and boiling over.

They should use this here on earth

[CowboyNealOption]

Maybe people could adopt individual grains of sand at the beach, to raise money to help keep the beaches clean. The hard part is writing the chosen names with a sharpie on each grain of sand.

Re:They should use this here on earth

[cmacb]

You beat me to it.

I sort-of fell for the Name-a-Star scam back in the 80s (sort-of because I knew the list wasn't completely official, but it made a nice change of pace from flowers as a gift... you mean, every scientist in the world isn't regularly referring to this speck in the sky by my mothers name?). So now we are starting all over again, but this time "it's for a good cause"?

How about adopting carbon atoms as a way to cure global warming:

(1) For $10 set to my PayPal address I'll insure that a specific carbon atom *with your name associated with it!* doesn't find its way back into the atmosphere.

(2) Profit!

Or has Al Gore already thought of this?

Jeez, and I thought...

[Weaselmancer]

...vanity plates were bad.

Is this a Russian Bride scam???

[EmbeddedJanitor]

How long before I get emails from my so-called star saying:"I've been captured by a bunch of NASA thugs wearing white coats and black spectacles. OMG they want to delete my itunes library I don't give then $10,000!!!!Please send $10,0000 to....

Is this like health class?

[kiehlster]

I remember in high school the who baby care/egg care thing where you (and a pair of classmates) had to take turns watching a fake baby or an egg for a few days. That was my first thought on adopting a star. Oh dang, my star esploded! Does that mean I get a zero on my report card?

Meanwhile, other classmates are laughing because their star is not going anywhere for another 2 million years.

Re:Is this like health class?

[corbettw]

I remember in high school the who baby care/egg care thing where you (and a pair of classmates) had to take turns watching a fake baby or an egg for a few days.

We had to care for the egg? Man, no wonder I flunked that class.

Oh well, a man's gotta eat.

I'll adopt Scarlett Johansson

[Locutus]

oh, THOSE kinds of stars. Never mind.

LoB

Re:I'll adopt Scarlett Johansson

[StarReaver]

Well, SOME stars are large enough to have planets orbiting around them...

Planet Jermaine

[Vituperator]

This reminds me of that Flight of the Conchords episode...

Murray: There's something I need to talk to you about. It's not good news. Planet Jermaine. It's supernova-ed. Yeah, there's nothing left of it apparently, just a huge gaseous cloud and the beginning of a black hole.

Jermaine: When did this happen?

Murray: About 4 million years ago.

But the planets...

[Anonymous Coward]

For a small donation, early adopters get a certificate by email and updates when any planets are found around their adopted star.

A certificate? If I adopt the star I want DEEDS for any planets that are discovered. And rent when folks get there.

Sorry, Sold Out

[tillerman35]

I went to their web site, but apparently all the stars have already been adopted by Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Madonna.

Re:Another scam like International Star Registry?

[Dogtanian]

I remember hearing all those commercials that you could name a star after someone. I was actually dumb enough to do it for a girlfriend. When we got the "chart" the star was.... made up! They actually put a black dot from a magic marker on it.

Black? That sounds suspiciously like she didn't get a star named after her, she got a black hole instead.

The people at the registry told me that this was because they heard your girlfriend was an oversized groupie who had a reputation for sucking stars and anything else in the vicinity...