14 DAY TRIAL // Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC), an international association of astronomers, initiated the Pale Blue Dot Project with the goal of raising research funds by giving away stars for adoption. The fee of only $10 allows Google Sky users to adopt stars from the KASC database and to support this way the research of the planetary systems that might surround these stars.
The Kepler satellite, which will be launched in March 2009 by NASA, is meant to discover Earth-like planets while monitoring over 100,000 stars in a distant constellation called Cygnus. During the mission that will last for almost 6 years, the high-quality digital camera mounted on the satellite will record any distortions in the amount of light perceived by the sensor. As these distortions may imply planets located in front of a star, the astronomers will analyze them in order to determine the size of the planets.
Adopting a star is a 3-step process. First of all, the Kepler Input Catalog must be consulted in order to pick a star. Each entry of this catalog contains basic information about the stars from constellation Cygnus. After browsing the catalog with Google Sky, people have to click on the placemark of the star in order to get its number. An alternative to this is to choose a star number from the text version of the catalog. This option might be preferred by the ones who want a certain string in the star name.
There are three options for making the donation. No matter what option is chosen, the name of the adopter must be sent along with the KIC number in the Designation field. As it is not mandatory for the name of the donor to coincide with the name of the adopter, star adoption may also represent an unusual gift. According to Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog, "the $10 will go directly to help pay for research to have the Kepler satellite search that star for planets." The fee is tax-deductible and will be used in its entirety for the research.
As proof of adoption, a personalized certificate will be sent to the adopter. Moreover, the name of the latter will also appear in the text version of the catalog and in the Google Sky placemark. It is estimated that the names of the first discovered planets will be made public after 3 to 6 months after the launch of the Kepler satellite. Assuming that an Earth-like planet is discovered in the planetary system that surrounds an adopted star, the adopter will have his or her name mentioned on the Pale Blue Dot Project Web site and will be informed about resources related to the discovery.