Category Archives: exploration

exoplanets, exploration, extrasolar planets, Uwingu, Uwingu Fund

All Hail Albertus Alauda

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Uwingu Announces Contest Winner

for Popular Name of Alpha Centauri Bb

Back when I was a child my father took me out to see the stars and my mother encouraged me to read about as many things as I could. Without their guidance, I might not be as interested in astronomy and sharing the stars as I am today. When I look at some areas of the sky, such as the constellation Orion, I think of those early times when they were turning me on to the sky.  And, to me, some areas of the sky will always be associated with my folks. If I’d thought of it sooner, I might have nicknamed that region where the Orion Nebula reigns supreme after them:  caeli gloriosa domo Johannis Collins, et Maria (Latin for “the glorious sky home of John and Mary Collins”). It would be a fitting salute to two people who sacrificed a lot so I (and my siblings) could get ahead in life.

Interestingly, the winner of the Uwingu contest to suggest popular names for the planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B had a similar wish to honor a relative. The winning name, announced today by Uwingu, is Albertus Alauda, suggested by Jason Lark in honor of his late grandfather, Albert Lark. In the citation accompanying his nomination, Jason wrote, “His name in Latin means “noble” or “bright” and to praise or to extol. I think this is an apt description as my Grandfather was a noble man and bright of character and in this nomination, I wish to honour [extol] him.”

Jason’s nomination to salute his grandfather won out over more than 1,240 names that were suggested in Uwingu’s contest. While congratulations are due to Jason for his touching nomination, the real winners are also the people who took the time to enter the contest and learn more about exoplanets as they also shared their resources to help a worthy cause. The proceeds of the contest will go to fund space educators and their projects — a goal that Uwingu has long supported as it seeks to find new ways to fund STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) outreach in the United States. For more information on Uwingu and its ongoing mission, visit the group’s website here, and to learn more about its upcoming projects.

 

 

 

exoplanets, exploration, Uwingu Fund

The Naming of Planets

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Uwingu Launches Contest to Name a Planet

I got a message from my old friend and CU colleague Alan Stern last week about Uwingu and he brought me up to speed on how it’s been going. You may recall I’ve written about this before — Uwingu is an imaginative crowd-funding site that supports space exploration, research and education and not just in name. Money donated through Uwingu’s unique crowd-sourcing projects go to help scientists to their work and share it with the world.

Uwingu has interesting perks if you contribute money. The latest is a chance to name the nearest Earth-sized planet, which just happens to be circling around the nearest star to the Sun, called Alpha Centauri B. The planet has a pretty prosaic name right now: Alpha Centauri Bb.   It doesn’t quite have the sexy sound of Earth, or Mars, or Saturn, or Uranus.  If you grew up on Alpha Centauri Bb, you’d probably have some other name for it. But, here on Earth, we need a more interesting name.

This is where Uwingu comes in. Starting today and continuing through April 15th, you can make a $4.99 donation that’ll cost you less than a fancy drink at a coffee shop and in return, you get to suggest a name for the planet. If you see a name that’s already been nominated, you can vote for it for only $0.99. Anyone can nominate names and vote for them. The name getting the most votes will be declared the public name for this world — which is kind of unique and cool. It’s the first time I can recall seeing a plebescite for a planet name.  And, even better, the person who comes up with the name that gets chose will win cool prizes from Uwingu.

Dr. Geoffrey Marcy, planet discoverer extraordinaire, thinks that the contest to name a planet is something that attracts people in a good way to science. People from everywhere can participate, he points out, “giving identities and even personality to billions of planets in our own galaxy.”

So, if Alan Stern is excited about this, and Geoffrey Marcy and I think it’s a cool idea, then here’s my recommendation: go check it out at Uwingu’s site.  A few bucks is a small price to pay to get the chance to give a deserving planet a name!  Plus, you’ll be funding cool science at the same time.

Check it out!