International Astronomical Union, Uwingu Trade Barbs Over Paying to Name Mars Craters

The International Astronomical Union, the governing body responsible for naming objects in space, has issued a stern statement in response to the website Uwingu, which allows people to pay to name craters on Mars.

Uwingu says its mission is to create new ways for non-scientist citizens to get involved with space exploration and astronomy, and a portion of the proceeds it collects for selling naming rights of Martian craters - which can fetch up to $500 apiece - goes back to fund future space research, the company says on its website.

Uwingu's Mars Crater Mapping Project has made headlines since its Feb. 26 launch, and the company says its goal is to help raise $10 million in funding for its grant program.

But the IAU said this week that the only institution with the power to officially name celestial bodies is the IAU itself and warned that putting a price tag on naming Mars craters and other space objects goes "against the spirit of free and equal access to space, as well as against internationally recognized standards."

The IAU said that no purchased names can ever be used on official maps and globes.

"In order to make sure that all scientists, educators and the general public 'speak the same language', astronomers from the International Astronomical Union have agreed on common standards for naming space objects, features or phenomena so that they can be easily located, described, and discussed," the IAU said. "For instance, features on a given planet or satellite receive names chosen from a particular theme. Only those features that are deemed to be of significance to science are given a name by the community, thus leaving other features to be named by future generations."

Uwingtu co-founder Doug Griffith told Forbes contributor Jasper Hamill that the IAU is a "self-licking ice cream cone of the scientific community" and has fallen behind the times, being unable to keep up with the demand and interest in naming space objects.

"The IAU is no better positioned to tell the public how to name exoplanets or craters on Mars than the biological community is situated to tell people how to name their babies," Griffith said in his oddly phrased rebuttal to the IAU.

Griffith went on to say that the the IAU feels threatened because he thinks they feel like naming celestial bodies is their exclusive domain, later criticizing the IAU for making the space object naming process "boring."

Indeed, most celestial objects have uninventive and esoteric names composed of long chains of letters and numbers. But these can used by astronomers to identify the location and other relevant information about the space objects quickly.

The IAU does grant space objects proper names on occasion. Most recently it put the names of Pluto's two newfound satellites up to public vote. Kerberos and Styx were voted in as the winning names, keeping in the theme of Pluto's moon names coming from classical mythology pertaining to the underworld.

Other planets in our solar system have similar themes for naming their features. The moons of Jupiter, for instance, were all named after lovers, conquests or daughters of the Roman god Jupiter or his Greek equivalent Zeus.

While the IAU chided Uwingtu for its pay-to-name practices and circumvention of its established standards, the organization did invite the public to participate in the naming of space objects through already established - and free - channels.