Galaxy Origins
The short answer
Names of stars and other astronomical objects are decided by the International Astronomical Union, and the IAU does not sell them. NASA does not name stars either, and runs no register you can buy into. A star "registry" is a private list kept by the company that sells the certificate.
That does not make the gift worthless: many people love the gesture. It does mean the name exists only in that company's book, and astronomers will never use it.
What people actually want from it
When someone names a star for a person they love, they are trying to say: something up there is ours. The certificate is a stand-in for that feeling.
We built Galaxy Origins around the part that can be true. At any moment, in any place, there is one point directly overhead. For the moment you choose, we find the real, catalogued galaxy nearest to that point that is still unassigned, and make a framed artwork from a telescope photograph of it.
What is real, and what is not
| Star registry certificate | Galaxy Origins | |
|---|---|---|
| The object | A star picked from a list | The galaxy overhead at your moment |
| Name | Invented, recognised by no astronomer | None. We keep its real catalogue name |
| What you hang | A certificate and a chart | A telescope photograph, framed |
| Checkable | Only in the seller's own list | Catalogue ID and coordinates in NASA/IPAC NED |
| Ownership | Often implied | Never claimed |
We assign no names and sell no ownership. What we promise is narrower and true: that galaxy was at the top of your sky, it is the one in the frame, and it is not assigned to anyone else.
