We are proud to announce a new public outreach project – a planet adoption campaign to give the public a chance to adopt and name almost any of the known exoplanets in astronomical databases.

Uwingu’s open-ended ‘Adopt a Planet” campaign kicked off on today, Wednesday May 1, 2013.

To qualify for adoption, a nominated name in our Galactic Exoplanet Baby Book database will need 1000 votes, which can be purchased outright by an individual or may be a group effort involving friends, family, colleagues, class members, club members, even companies and Facebook groups—anyone.  Uwingu’s current “baby book” of names is growing daily with over 1,240 names to date. Any of the current names in the database except Albertus  Aludia—which won the alpha Centauri Bb naming competition and has therefore already been adopted–are eligible for adoption when their vote tally reaches 1,000 votes.

The namers whose nominated exoplanet names reach 1000 votes will be informed of their eligibility to choose almost any exoplanet in astronomical databases, which will then be publicized by Uwingu. Uwingu will also be giving recognition to names that reach thresholds of 100 and 500 votes.

Proceeds from the naming and voting will continue to help fuel new Uwingu grants to fund space exploration, research, and education.

The clock is ticking and it isn’t over just yet! Who will be on top? Who will win prizes for 100 or more votes?

There is still time to nominate a friend, family member, favorite colleague, or anyone else you would like to have the planet around Alpha Centauri Bb named after!

And if you’ve already made your nomination, now is the time to get your social networks voting for you!  But only if you act quickly, we’ll pick the winter at 12 Midnight EDT on Monday!

In the lead:

1.  Rakhat -  from Mary Doria Russell’s book ”The Sparrow”

2.  Caleo - Latin for Warm or Hot

3.  Amara - one of our sweetest nominations and engagement proposal

4.  Tiber - from Buzz Aldrin’s science fiction novel “Encounter with Tiber”

5.  Heinlein - after science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein

Other names in the running:

-Astronauts: Armstrong, Lovell, Buzz, Hadfield

-Spacecrafts: Challenger, Endeavour, Enterprise, Discovery, SpaceShipTwo

-Authors: Twain, Bradbury, Silverberg, Niven, Verne, Hugo, Roddenberry

-Politicians: Franklin, Lincoln, Barak Obama, Mitt Romney, King George

-Physicists: Newton, Hooft, Boxx, Dyson, Hawking, Einstein, Feynman

-Astronomers: Copernicus, Marcy, Sagan, Galileo, Phil Plait, Kepler, Neil deGrasse Tyson

-Tons of “Sci-Fi” inspiration

-A mixed bag of other possibilities including: Pluto, Jerry Garcia, Zappa, Pink Floyd, Physics Today, Bug-Eye, Godiseverywhere, X, UGA-1785, and more

-Frontrunners in the Axe Apollo Space Academy Race

-The Characters from The Big Bang Theory

Who do you think will win? 

You have a chance to win some great prizes with even just a few votes! And remember – all of the proceeds added to The Uwingu Fund during this contest will go directly to the projects and people impacted by NASA sequestration cuts.  Won’t you help?

Nominations close at midnight EDT (-5 GMT) Monday Night! Hurry!

Axe or Lynx, the manufacturer of grooming products for men, launched a campaign to to recruit a few brave souls for the opportunity of a lifetime: a trip to space.

Contest spokesman Buzz Aldrin announced the competition in a Superbowl commercial. The response has been incredible and contestants have been busy encouraging their social networks and fans to support this opportunity by sharing votes.  Winners will have the chance to travel into space with space tourism company SpaceXC.

Frontrunners (right now) in the competition include a diverse group of contestants:

-Christopher Poole: An internet entrepreneur noted for founding the websites 4chan and Canvas, originally under the pseudonym moot

-Alexander Whiteboy – A YouTube Call of Duty commentator

-Lorie Merrithew – Penobscot Valley High School English Teacher

-Lacey McQuinn – Colorado Merchandising Analyst for the Skylark Group Representing the North Face

-Ellen Perron – Texas Tech University Mechanical Engineering student

-Erin Ryder – Monster/Ghost/UFO Hunter, Producer, World-traveler, & Mouthy blonde. ChasingUFOs Premieres on National Geographic

-Justine Ezarik – or iJustine, an internet personality, avid video gamer and tech obsessed individual.

Jesus Christ, Harraz MohdReza, Nicolas Allegro, Gabriel Kovacs and Molly Pfaff are also at the top of the list.

We think the only thing better than winning a trip to space is having the closest known exoplanet, Alpha Centauri Bb named in your honor.

GET INVOLVED: Vote for the names you’d like to see gracing another world AND support space education, exploration, and research at the same time!

**Photo Credit: Lacey McQuinn: https://www.facebook.com/LaunchLunarLacey

March Madness is sweeping the nation here in the US. The airwaves are filled with projections and prognostication on which NCAA Men’s Basketball team will take home the national championship for 2013. Here at Uwingu, we’ve created our own bracket competition in honor of the Sweet 16!

All of the schools are listed in our database, and we need your help to see which ones will the race to the top! Not for the hoops title, but to see which one tops the charts as we raise money to fund science education, exploration and research!

Can the Ducks pull off an upset over the Cardinals? What happens when the Spartans square off against the Devils? Let those games be settled on the floor. You can take the competition to the next level–outer space!

Visit our NCAA Sweet 16 page and place your votes now. Votes are only $.99, so rally your fellow fans and alumni to throw your support behind your favorite school! Share the page on Twitter. Post a story on Facebook. It’s a fun way to leave your mark on the universe and raise money to directly fund excellent and worthy space research and education initiatives.

Good luck to all the teams as March Madness continues. We’ll update you as to which school names are rising in our own brackets here at Uwingu!

As you’ve heard, NASA’s sequestration is causing a serious impact to the funding of worthy projects. As our staff and board of advisors is made up largely of active, working scientists, we’re directly impacted.

Private and commercial funding of space-based initiatives is more important than ever. That’s the purpose of The Uwingu Fund, and why we encourage you to participate with us, adding names to our database and voting on your favorites.

But you, as a private citizen of the Earth, can do much more. Personal funding directly to the initiatives you support can and does make a great impact. It keeps scientists employed. It keeps research happening. It keeps our entire species looking forward.

How can you help?

-Support the Uwingu Fund with your votes and nominations

-Tell you friends about our Alpha Centauri Bb naming competition

-Share a blog post encouraging your friends and followers to support private and commercial funding projects for space-based initiatives

-Like our posts or pictures on Facebook

-Follow us on Twitter and help send us your space related articles, photos, & videos to retweet

As you’ve heard, sequestration is causing a serious impact to the funding of many worthy space projects—most recently suspending all work on Education and Public Outreach (EPO) efforts funded through NASA.

Because our company and board of advisors are made up largely of working space scientists and educators, we know how many dedicated and hard working EPO professionals are affected by cuts like these.

At Uwingu, we believe that private and commercial funding of space-based initiatives—including research and EPO—is more important than ever.

That’s the purpose of The Uwingu Fund, which is fueled from people participating in projects at Uwingu.

Currently, we’re conducting an innovative, “People’s Choice” contest to nominate and vote to determine the most popular name for the newly discovered planet around the nearest star to the Sun—alpha Centauri. We hope you’ll participate, and we hope you will tell others about what we’re doing in your circles.

And by way of this blog, I am announcing we are going to take our own kind of action at Uwingu. Specifically, I am announcing today that all Uwingu Fund proceeds from the naming contest for alpha Centauri’s planet will go to EPO grants.

Please help us get this word out to the press and via social media and word of mouth, and encourage people to participate in the contest at www.uwingu.com Help us help those in sudden need.

On Behalf of the Uwingu Team, Thanks,

Dr. Alan Stern

CEO Uwingu

 Uwingu Launches Contest for the Public to Imagine

A Name for The Nearest Known Earth-Sized Planet

First Planet Around Alpha Centauri: “Alpha Centauri Bb” What name does the public want? Uwingu Funding Space Research and Education via Contest

Boulder, Colorado—Space company UwinguTM has launched a new public outreach project—a public contest to determine the worldwide public’s choice name for the nearest known planet around another star. Anyone can nominate a name; the contest ends April 15th.

The name getting the highest number of votes will be declared the public’s name for this mysterious new world. Never before has the public been asked to choose its favorite name for a planet. Anyone can nominate one or more names; anyone can vote.

Name nominations are $4.99; votes cost $0.99. Proceeds from naming and voting will help fuel new Uwingu grants to fund space exploration, research, and education. Uwingu was recently featured in Time Magazine, at http://science.time.com/2013/03/07/name-your-own-exoplanet-for-4-99/

The namer of the most popular name for alpha Centauri Bb will receive prizes from Uwingu and will be recognized in a press release about the winning name. Uwingu is also giving prizes for runner-ups, and for all names that reach thresholds of 100, 1,000, and 10,000 votes.

“Alpha Centauri Bb is a fine designation for us astronomers, but let’s face it—it’s a little boring. Let’s see what the people of planet Earth would want to name their nearest planetary cousin” says astronomer and Uwingu CEO Dr. Alan Stern. He added, “This is a new way for the people of Earth, of every age, of every nation, of every walk of life to personally connect to space discoveries, and to help fund space research and education in the process.”

Leading planet discoverer, astronomer Dr. Geoff Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley added, “Now people all over the world can participate in these discoveries in a new way, giving identities and even personality to billions of planets in our galaxy for the first time. I‘m excited, and hope you will be too. Try it and see, at www.uwingu.com“

Do you have a blog or website?  Lets help each other!

We are looking for more creative ways to spread the word about Uwingu and naming exoplanets.  With your help we would love to reach more people, watch the new names roll in, and feel good about supporting more space research and education projects!

Let’s do it:

1.  Create a positive 250 word or longer blog post about Uwingu, your favorite Uwingu exoplanet name, then share it with us via Facebook or Twitter for $5 in site credit”

2.  Or alternatively, use the HTML code below to add one of our e-badges to your site and show it to us for a shout out on Facebook or Twitter

Badge Code (see post image for the two options):

Uwingu w Astronomy & Discover Badge
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Uwingu Logo + URL Badge
<a href=”http://www.uwingu.com” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i1288.photobucket.com/albums/b492/elkhall/a0792a5f-aedc-4a33-b97b-23d92f0e0192_zpsd04a2f85.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”http://www.uwingu.com”/></a>

We started out this morning with 904 names in our directory.

The growing list has been fun to track.  We love reading the new names and thoughtful citations.  Many of the names are recognizing friends, family members, beloved pets and past loves.

What names are yet to come?  We wanted to do something special to celebrate the 1,000th name and Uwingu milestone.

As a special THANK YOU we will share a $25 Uwingu gift certificate with the person who names the 1,000th planet.  We can’t wait to publicize the winner!

Who will submit the 1,000th name? And what will it be?

Space start up Uwingu™ announced today that has recruited a distinguished board of 15 advisers to assist the company in strategic and operational planning.

Uwingu’s Board of Advisers consists of talented and influential thinkers in astronomy and planetary science, marketing/branding/promotion, and business. The Board includes:

• Mr. Michael Aisner, promoter and marketing expert; former PR Director of the Coors Classic bicycle race.
• Ms. Cassie Kloberdanz, aerospace business development expert, formerly in  media and public relations at SpaceX.
• Dr. Richard Fienberg, press officer of the American Astronomical Society and the former editor of Sky & Telescope magazine.
• Dr. Louis Friedman, co-founder and former executive director of The Planetary Society.
• Dr. Pamela Gay, astrophysicist and citizen science expert.
• Mr. Stephen Goldman, computer industry entrepreneur and physicist.
• Dr. David Grinspoon, award winning author and planetary scientist, and Fellow of the Library of Congress.
• Mr. Jon Lomberg, renowned space artist.
• Dr. Geoff Marcy, astrophysicist and pioneering exoplanet hunter.
• Mr. George Merlis, communications expert, adviser to NASA, and former producer of Good Morning America (GMA) on ABC television.
• Dr. Cathy Olkin, planetary astronomer.
• Dr. Phil Plait, astronomer and influential space blogger.
• Mr. Rick Rasansky, serial entrepreneur and Internet CEO.
• Dr. Robert Richards, co-founder and CEO of Moon Express.
• Dr. Teresa Segura, planetary scientist and business development expert.

Uwingu’s CEO Dr. Alan Stern reflected on this group as follows, “We are very proud of this advisory board. And we are looking forward to their counsel and assistance as we create a private sector fund for space research, education, and exploration through the sales of novel space and astronomy projects that help the people of Earth better connect to space and the sky.”