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

Another scam like International Star Registry?

[Electric Eye]

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.
This sounds oddly familiar.

How about getting NASA's money back from George Bush's bogus faith-based programs?

Re:Another scam like International Star Registry?

[syousef]

What I want to know is what moron decided that starting a similar scam would be a good way to get funding. Any credible astronomer will denounce such nonsense as the star registry so for a credible organisation to start doing this is madness. Someone with too much marketing training and too little scientific training needs to get the sack (or at least a severe reprimand).