What's Uwingu: a company whose stated goals are 1) to increase people's interest
in Astronomy and 2) create a different way to fund research. I'm all for the former.
As for the latter, what do they plan to do?
Sell the sky.
I kid you not. They are selling the sky. Full of the worst tricks of
marketing to get your money. You nominate a planet by $4.99, and you vote
on suggested names by $0.99 (don't you hate the .99 that stores put
on all prices just to make you feel you're paying less?). You can even have bulk discounts.
They will print you a certificate, which is supposed to give legitimacy and validity to the transaction.
I tried to ignore it when I heard of it. So did the IAU, I suppose. But it ended up getting to
their nerves, and they have issued an In the light of recent events statement,
that you can read in the link below.
The business practice of Uwingu is being hotly debated in the Astronomer's facebook
page. Astronomers seem quite divided about it. I had my own squirmish with
the IAU some years ago when I suggested a scheme for naming the planets.
But this time around, I side 100% with the IAU. Uwingu combines two very bad ideas.
One is to give planets popular names, instead of names based on world
mythology. Why not popular names? Simple. In general, they tend to be
rather distasteful. Look at some asteroid names: Mrspock, Jamesbond,
Tomhanks, Megryan. If the same happens for exoplanets, we will have a
profusion of kids/pets/partners names. Do we want to see articles entitled
"On the spin-orbit coupling of Fido" or "General circulation model of Jessica"?
Not to mention that some time ago names such as Fourpiter, Twopiter and Dinky
enjoyed some popularity. Are these the names we want to see given to exoplanets?
Then look at the names suggested at Uwingu. RonPaul, MittRomney, NoMoreTaxes.
Popular names tend to be really bad. For this reason, naming should be
given to a committee that cares about nomenclature, precisely to avoid an
abundance of such unpalatable names.
The committee that cares about nomeclature is of course the IAU. When I made my suggestion, the IAU took it seriously.
They passed it to the whole committee, who considered the idea, thought about it, gave me feedback,
but eventually rejected it. Some of the objections I didn't agree with
(the system of car plate licenses is fine), some I think are sound (any naming system
should be international). I started working on the corrections they
suggested, but Kepler made me drop it. I suggested to name the planets
based on the myth of the constellation where they are found. This scheme worked up
to 2009, when the known exoplanets were found scattered pretty much all
around. Kepler's massive output in a single patch of the sky
rendered the scheme impractical, since the Kepler planets are all in two
constellations (Lyra and Cygnus). I didn't think yet of a naming scheme
that includes the Kepler planets.
The second bad idea of Uwingu is to charge for naming planets. A shady
idea that borders the unethical. When the IAU press-release came out, Uwingu accused the IAU
of arrogantly intending to "own" the Universe. Yet they are the ones trying to sell the sky. Haven't they read
The Little Prince? Uwingu, not the IAU, is the businessman who thought he owned the stars.
Moreover, the whole concept of funding research by private capital is a
dangerous idea. I for one don't want to live in a world where research is
funded by corporations. Uwingu is a slippery slope into the system
reigning in pharmacology, where multi-millionary companies care more about
the money they can make out of the drugs they develop than about saving
the lives of people who need them. As Bill Gates himself said, if research
is surrendered to the forces of market, male baldness gets more funding
than malaria.
On the positive side, I think it's great that they got the debate reopened
and now the IAU is considering again the possibility of naming the
exoplanets. I'm all for the idea. The bad elements in Uwingu's proposal are
the pay-for-play and the lack of a committee to regulate the
naming. But the idea of crowdsourcing is not bad. The way I would do it
would be: make it free, and in addition to the name, people would need to
offer some reasoning as to why they think the name is sound. The website
should clearly state that mythological names are preferred. There can be a
popular vote for best names, but eventually the names
should be submitted to the IAU for approval. That's the only way I can see
this working. And free, I insist. Science should be funded by voting
responsibly, not by selling the sky we don't own.
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