A few people were having a discussion precisely on the naming of stars. One of them wanted to name a particular star after his deceased grandfather. The conversation seemed to be going nowhere until one of them made perhaps a very valid point: who knows that a star is named after your grandfather? Does someone recognize it and will it be used in scientific studies?
Well, these are essentially the three questions that lead to the right answers. Naming a star after someone you love might be a great gesture; however, the inevitable question remains as to what is the validity of such nomenclature?
It seems the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has come up with all the answers. For those of you who don’t know IAU is the pioneering authority behind the proper naming of stars and other celestial objects like planets and galaxies. The names assigned by the IAU are the one that is used by the scientists and other astronauts. Any other third party that claims that you can have a star named after anyone is largely duping the customers into believing something that has no relevance or even significance outside the prelims of their very own offices.
What Does The IAU Say?
When you are the largest governing body that has all the rights to naming conventions for certain things, your word matters. In IAU’s words, companies that offer you a name of any star for an amount as small as even $20, it is a scam. These companies don’t have a legal license to sell names for stars, and these names hold no validity beyond their business. So, in their businesses list, a particular star might be named after you, but out in the real world, the IAU name stands. So, apart from just spending money for momentary happiness, these third party companies sell you nothing.
(Image Courtesy: IAU Office of Astronomy Development)
Can’t The IAU Name A Star After You?
If you look at the name of the stars, they aren’t your usual names. They are mostly denoted by numbers. These figures, however, are not just a few figures but are the coordinates of a particular’s stars position. So, while the IAU can assign a star after your name, it will never do that because of the simple reason that it would cause a humongous amount of confusion. You look at the coordinates, and you know what star one is talking about, however, if it is named after someone, people will find it very hard to locate that particular star. It’s just like knowing someone’s name is not enough. However, if you know someone’s Id number, you can track that person down, without even knowing their name.
(Image Courtesy: IAU)
Why Doesn’t The IAU Stop this Scam?
Well, the clear answer to this is that the IAU doesn’t own the entire galaxy. It’s not like stars are in possession of IAU and if someone else puts a name on them will it be seen as a copyright infringement or breach of privacy. The outer world is as much anyone’s as it is IAU’s. The IAU is just a universally recognized body that puts coordinates against stars so that it becomes easy to keep track of their location.
(Image Courtesy: Topastronomer.com)
So, Is This Really A Scam?
Absolutely. No body apart from the IAU has the authority to name a star, and if it does, then it is no more than a scam. However, it is not illegal. It is just a clever business model that plays on giving momentary happiness to people. After all having a star named after you or a family member is such a great thing. Sadly though, this name has no validity outside the realms of that company. Moreover, there have been cases where a company has assigned different names on the same star because who is ever going to know?
(Image Courtesy: Inspire-hep)
If You Still Want Something Astronomic, What’s Your Best Shot?
The answer to this is, lots! You can head to your nearest local amateur or professional observatory. There you can find enough people who will be more than happy to show you around. Besides, you can find hi quality images and magazines based on stars and other celestial objects that make up for a perfect gift. You can also become a regular in seeing stars and exploring more of them through telescopes. Telescopes for that matter also make up for beautiful gifts. Apart from all this, you can also head on to certain websites that allow you to browse through millions of stars on your home computer and also let you take printouts of it. Funnily, these websites are the primary databases of all these third party companies that sell star names.
So, hopefully, all your queries regarding this matter would have been clarified. To tell you, all the data here has been extracted after thorough research from IAU’s official website so that you can trust it. If you want to add more or still have some queries, make full use of the comments section below. We’ll try and address such questions in another post.
(Image Courtesy: Refernce.com)
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