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A non-profit alternative: Many private companies offer to "sell" you a
star name for $19.95, but
here you can adopt a star that might host a
planetary system for just $10! The Pale Blue Dot project is hosted by a
non-profit organization (White Dwarf Research Corporation) and 100% of
the proceeds are used to support
scientific research on the stars that you actually adopt.
A search for habitable planets: In April 2009, NASA will launch the
Kepler satellite -- a mission
designed to discover Earth-like planets around distant Sun-like stars.
The satellite will monitor the brightness of more than 100,000 stars in the
constellation Cygnus
with a high quality digital camera for up to 6 years. Scientists will be looking
for tiny dips in the amount of light received by the telescope -- the possible
signature of a planet passing in front of the star. The Pale Blue Dot
project supports the analysis that will allow astronomers to determine
the physical size of the planet, through the research efforts of the
Kepler Asteroseismic
Science Consortium (KASC), a large international collaboration
of scientists.
Step 1 - Select a star: To prepare for the mission, NASA sponsored a survey to
produce the Kepler
Input Catalog, which contains basic data about each of the stars to be targeted by the
mission. You can select any star that has not already been adopted. Just
browse the catalog through Google
Sky if you want to adopt two stars together or a star of a certain color
(click on the placemark to see the star number), or select a star by number
in the text version if you
want the number to commemorate a special date (use your browser's search
function to find a string of numbers like "021409").
Step 2 - Adopt the star: Just specify a donation amount ($10 per star)
and click on one of the donate buttons below. Please enter your name and the
star number you would like to adopt in the "Designation" field. If you would
like to adopt a star for someone else, just enter their name in the
"Designation" field instead. Anonymous donations can be made through the
Network for Good website. Otherwise, please specify
a valid email address so we can send you a certificate and let you know if
a planet is discovered around your adopted star. All donations are
tax-deductible, and will help fund scientific research to determine the
sizes of the planets discovered by the Kepler mission.
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Designation on next page
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What you get: Everyone who adopts a star will receive a
personalized certificate
by email and will be acknowledged in both the text version of the catalog,
and in the placemark for their adopted star in Google Sky. The first planets
discovered by Kepler are expected to be announced within 3-6 months
after the beginning of the mission. If you adopt a star that is found
to host a planet, you will be featured on a special section of our
website and we will contact you to let you know where you can learn
more about the discovery. The smallest planets in Earth-like orbits
may not be discovered until later in the mission, so we will continue
making updates throughout Kepler's lifetime.
Early Adopters: Special thanks to everyone who adopted a star before
the Kepler Input Catalog was released:
| Cherie Goff | John Clarey | Ariel Matty | Jonathan Metcalfe |
| Paola Paleari | Anita Mercedes Ryden | Mathias Bildhauer | Jerry Metcalfe |
| Dyanne Burke | Chance Hinds | Heidi Sanders | Todd Renner |
| Wendy Renner | Derek Frame | Devin Frame | Ashley Metcalfe |
| Brian Metcalfe | Christine Goff | Wes Goff | Mardee Goff |
| Danielle Goff | Addie Goff | Nick Wilder | Rodger Peer |
| Lola Peer | Sandra Ray | David Harper | Anna L. White |
| Steve C. White | Jane T. White | Oliver G. White | Angela Roberts |
| Michael R. Johnson | Gena M. McLellan | Jason Metcalfe | Wonmi Lauren Kim |
| Charmaine Kissinger | Frank Kelkis | Akash Jain | Alan Kott |
| Erin Bell | Christine Millott | Dave Salay | Kyle W. Dorsey |
| Yeni Alvarez | Trung Nguyen | Jacob Crabtree | Caleb Crabtree |
| Anna-Maria Graves | Yvonne Self | Joseph Lennox | Jack Gardiner |
| Jackson Dean Arnold | Christopher Hemendinger | Timothy Morriss | Danielle DiGiau |
| Roger Bensen | John C. Glidden Jr. | Janet Struthers | Simon Lindley |
| Anita Struthers | Christine Messerli | John Guittar | Rachel Chong Lee Peng |
| How Peng Jin | Stephanie Simmons | Max Thomas | Kieran Boucher |
| Diana Slager | Deborah Lamonea | Tony Lamonea | Katie Thompson |
| Devon Stoner | Scott Vogel | Joelle Pretty | Fay Edwin Mason |
| Anita Andersson | Francisco Burzi | Tom Kelly | Nikki Prusha |
| Tim Röder | Paul Gardella | Matthew Molnar | Eugene Brown |
| Aaron Zimmerman | Nathan Woodruff | Davis Chen | Cody Garges |
| Chris Meyers | Eric Cassidy | Gerard Saraber | Sina Morawej |
| Giampiero Campa | WebSentience, Inc. | Charles Lawrence | Alfred Whitehead |
| John Orlowski | Lars Thuring | Charles Knezevich | Javier Perez |
| Robert Markoski | James McGarity | Antonio Martins | Thomas Rothamel |
| Nick Petkovich | Corey O'Connor | Carsten Erickson | Gary Webber |
| Bobby Magee | Thomas Damgaard | Frederick Lafleche | Martin Wisely |
| Warren L Kolar | Ilya Akinfiev | Danny Schrader | Niranjan Niranjan |
| Matthew Lamoureux | Alan Batie | Christopher Ehrmann | John Gibbs |
| William Shuster | Glenn Barrett | Ben Smith | Jorrit Jongma |
| Ann Boon Leo | Grace Hoo | Tim McNally | Gwee Gek Lang |
| Marina Lagunova | Shohn Trojacek | Luke Morrill | Matthew Hosafros |
| Joshua Powers | Cristian Peralta Estrada | Assaf Rutenberg | Elaine Waldron |
| Siri Fardal | Benjamin Schirmer | Susan Kolar | Leif Sawyer |
| Saevar Ofjord Magnusson | Cassandra Rowan Moritz | Rob Nolen | Bohemians of Anchorage |
| Ryan Somma | Conor Nosal | Paul McDermott | Gabriella Cavajon |
| Dean Gilbert | Daevad Tajkowski | Catherine Hill | Jarred M. Braun |
| Adam Bozarth | Abbe Hubenak-McCrea | Ryan Doherty | Donald Tripp |
| Emanuel Melo | Lucia Gonzalez | Suzannah Kimbrel | Cathie Gallagher |
| Luke Beales | Per-Ivar Amundsen | Steve Thomas | Anthony Lam |
| Noriel Devera | Tatiana Skripka | Lutz Krebs | Alexander Hradetzky |
| Aaron Lenz | Peter Cunderlik | Emanuela Baldi | Andrew Conover |
| Justin Nichol | John Painter | Alyona Olshevskaya | Kimberly Lovelace |
| Ryan Doherty | Christine Heung | Peri Litt | Shana Litt |
| Jeffrey Nikoletich | Holly Novell | Robert Ready | Andy Chung |
| Chrissie Bette | Sivon Raphael Urquhart | Tatiana Yvonne Urquhart | Elizabeth McCullough |
| Mason Orton | Brett Gray | Deann Joy Ronning | Christopher Dent |
| Victor Robinson | David Tucker | Sean McNeill | Helge Meyer Ryeng |
| Melissa Burkes-Livingston | Alex I. Slover | Christina Fuller | Venugopal Garimella |
| Debbie Frost | David Corry | Kristóf Soponyai | Tori Trinder |
| Rachel Stern | Deryck Urbas | Allison Byrum | Chiradeep Chhaya |
| Salony Agrawal | Stephen Lizcano | Brad Neuberg | Luciana Serio |
| Scott R. Campbell | William C. Dixon | Roger Maalouf | Ram Grihi Choudhary |
| Matthew Seashore | Mari Plikuhn | Eric Plikuhn | John S. Michael |
| Jillian "KIDD" Sanburg | Cole T. Rottweiler | Abhijeet Kolekar | James A. Gayhart |
| Andrew Andreasen | Rebecca Andreasen | Jeffrey Dickinson | Derek Janik |
| Cari Miller | Bentley Kassemi | Naeim Semsarilar | Rys Lardner |
| Ian Leonard | Beth Clark | Brett Chubb | Michelle Bass |
| Jennifer Ebert | Lode Vandevenne | Tomaž Vaupotič | Atticus Johnson Takashi Doyle |
| Alessio Nieri | Paul Smeddle | Carlos Rodrigues | Jon Hale |
| Luke Edwards | Honglei Li | Nils Egil Lie | Simon Bettison |
| Kristen Nicole Skelton | Jesse Caldwell | Qays Poonawala | Philip Bernstein |
| William North | Patrick Ouellet | Tor Willy Austerslatt | Tyler Ward |
| Daniel Lever | Wybo Wiersma | Patrick Lowry | Henk-Jaap Wagenaar |
| Marc Vieira Cardinal | Tyler Joy Ware | Jocelyne Lacombe | Mario Pépin |
| James Caceres | Michael Gorton | John Tougas | Orland Outland |
| Elizabeth Davidson | Lilly and Taylor Browning | Andrea Vezzoli | Gordon Celesta |
| Blair Mitchelmore | Simon Parker | Chris Twilleager | Mathieu Belanger |
| Diana Randall | Kevin Walsh | Genevieve Sanguinetti | Joseph Delekto |
| Chris Naunton | Michael Ryan | Isabelle Lachaux | Vivienne Lachaux |
| Ronan Kennedy | Ryan Carmody | Henry Reid | Londi Reid |
| Danielle Blance | John W. King | Jeanne Yturri | Thomas Fulmer |
| Christopher Robin | Ross Laurie | Rhian Collins | M. Francois Levaux-Tiffreau |
| Meara Collins | Meryem Benohoud-Badaut | Pétur Thors | Ilan Graicer |
| Geneviève Breault | Anthony F. Fiore | Dan Ciprian Todor | Chris Moriarty |
| Abby Frances Oliva | Sue Phippen | Miron Roth | Jean du Plessis |
| Jason Mathews | Heather Mathews | Connor Mathews | Kristine Tolentino |
| Sarah Victoria Adams | Cathy Bryant | Danielle Shaffer | Bhupesh Vohra |
| Michael Trammell | Matthew Clothier | Bryan Whitten | Randy Tran |
| Lyrise Devosiana | Bailey Ann Jungmann | Christopher O'Keefe | Frank Delaney |
| Scott Martin | Yugesh Vohra | Detrick Merz | Roberto Carlos Fernandez Gerhardt |
| Coral Polites | Jordan Marshall | Michael D. Johas Teener | Yvonne Bennings |
| Broadcaststuff.com | Jody Urbas | Sara Sinclair | Joshua Brody |
| Yanjun Cong | Daniel Gallant | Louise McCulloch | Jason Radcliff |
| Jeremiah Hahn | Delvin Hahn | David Barker | Lyle Barbato |
| Seda Tamur | Louis Scuderi | Revis McKenzie | Stephen King |
| Matthew Hicks | Ishan Jayawardene | Jacob Thomas Sievert | Cristino Ruiz |
| Andy Shaw | Steven Finn | Bjarni Dagur Thor Kárason | Mo O'Brien |
| Caro O'Brien | Kendra Longbrook | Dustin Papow | Conor Papow |
| Ralph A. Caruso | Donald B. Coles | Sarika Ravlekar | Rakesh Ravlekar |
| Ville Sinisalo | Jere Sinisalo | Eppu Sinisalo | Gloria and Marvin Fischer |
| BJ Switzer | Maria Adelaide Borromeo | Sonya Tang | Aaron Land |
| Jaason Engle | Joshua Fowell | Elizabeth Kamath | Sean Kamath |
| Tobias Kamath | Alisha Gard | Travis Mason | Paul Donovan |
| Robert Jordan Hawley | Stephanie Burger | Anja Burse | Stacey Haysler |
| Francene Aller | Anthony Luick | Kent Sanders | Carol Walker |
| Bridget Rule | Jakub Osika | Sophie Salvatore | Neal Vines |
| Martin Nydick | David "Beetle" Bailey | Wright Clarkson | Shane Brennan |
| Johnny Glidden | Wanda Anders | Michael Carmody | Suzzanne Gartner |
| Jeff Mortimer | Nancy Valdes | Zoe Strattman | Nicole and Anthony Fiore |
| Wyatt O'Connor | Tony Luick | Matthew J. Dallmeyer | Kristina Marie Beagle |
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