3-2-1… launch! Just Announced! Updated Uwingu Site Launched

We are thrilled to announce that Uwingu has moved out of beta and into full commercial launch mode!  Our website is officially live and ready to connect people with the sky!  We are eager to encourage exploration of space, space research, and space education through the resources on our site.

Our semi-public beta has already generated hundreds of names. But we’re just getting started. Astronomers estimate over 160 billion exosolar planets in our galaxy alone, with new planets discovered each week!

This social experiment is meant to give people a chance to choose the names for these newly discovered planets.  Naming celestial objects is usually done by astronomers and professionals. But surely we can do better than 2M 0746+20b, right? We’re giving people like you the opportunity to help shape how we name exoplanets in the future by building a baby book of names to use for the billions of planets in our galaxy. We want people just like you to use your imagination and help choose what names we collectively use for these new discoveries.

We hope you have a chance to review some of the names, nominate some of your own, or help us spread the word with a tweet!