If you ever heard the name "Rocky Mosele", it was probably in a radio commercial for the company he owns, http://www.starregistry.com/ . For a fee, you can "Name a star after someone!" See also http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/astronomy/can-anyone-name-star-52180.html
How many stars are available for naming? Well, http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970115.html says there are 10^21 stars in the universe, and since there are 6,666,666,666 people on Earth, the number of stars available is 150 billion stars per person. Not very exclusive. I don't want just a star of my own, I want a whole galaxy. Well, how many galaxies are there in the universe? http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/021127a.html says there are 500 billion galaxies. That comes to 75 galaxies per person. Still not exclusive enough, no scarcity value. We need something that is rarer, and therefore more valuable. Al Gore to the rescue! This innovator not only invented the Internet, but also invented "carbon offsets". Don't buy a star; instead, purchase a patch of rainforest. And you'll have as much control over it as you do over the stars and galaxies that bear your name. Details here: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2008/12/022345.php This is almost as exciting as winning valuable Google points. -- Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Persons posting messages to not_honyaku assume all responsibility for their messages. The list owner does not review messages, and accepts no responsibility for the content of messages posted. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
