The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is in a pitched battle with Uwingu, a Web site that "sells" naming rights to Martian craters.

Uwingu is determined to create the first-ever map of Mars created through crowdsourcing. For prices up to $500, the company allows anyone to name a crater on the Red Planet.

That program elicited an angry response from the International Astronomical Union. Established in 1919, the group is charged with officially naming extraterrestrial objects, including craters on other worlds. In its first-ever meeting, held in Rome in 1922, the IAU standardized the names and abbreviations of constellations. During the space race of the 1960's, the international body played a critical role in developing names for features on the Moon that were agreeable to both American and Soviet officials.

"In order to make sure that all scientists, educators and the general public 'speak the same language,' astronomers... have agreed on common standards... 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," wrote the IAU in a press release.

The response from Uwingu could be described as bizarre.

"The IAU needs to evolve beyond being the self-licking ice cream cone of the scientific community and recognize that as long as its existence is merely to gratify its own elitist sense of ownership of all things space, it is not going to play a role in the new wave of space exploration. That will be done by others who recognize that science exists to benefit the world, not the scientists," wrote the group in their response.

For decades, many companies have offered "Buy a Star" programs, giving people a chance to have a star named after themselves or a loved one. The companies usually send the customer a labeled map showing the position of "their star" in the sky. These name assignments are never official, and are not used by astronomers. Many of the stars are sold time and again to different customers.

Uwingu is not just a bunch of people out to make a quick dollar on overpriced star charts. One of the co-founders of the group is Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and former NASA official. Some members of the group even sit on the IAU itself.

Some of the money raised by Uwingu goes toward sponsoring groups supporting space research. They help fund Astronomers without Borders and the Allen Telescope Array.

Hopefully, science is served by this program, even if the crater names aren't officially recognized.

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