Sponsor An ADAM Discovery

No, we are not selling naming rights. This is a way for people to support asteroid discovery work being done on the open-source Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping (ADAM) Platform. No ownership or naming rights are conferred by your sponsorship.

No, you will not own that asteroid. Only the International Astronomical Union can recognize official names for asteroids. Rather, when you sponsor an asteroid discovery with B612, you are helping us build and operate the ADAM platform on which your discovery was made. No ownership or naming rights are conferred by your sponsorship.

Discovery credit on the Minor Planet Center (MPC) website is given to the individuals or teams who submit the initial observations of an asteroid, along with the observatory or telescope used. Once enough observations are collected to confirm the object’s orbit, the MPC formalizes the discovery, and the discoverers’ names are permanently associated with the object. While follow-up observers contribute to refining the orbit, primary credit remains with the initial discoverers. Since the Asteroid Institute is submitting discoveries found in other observational datasets, credit is given to the initial observations from that observatory or telescope used.

Yes, you can sponsor an asteroid discovery for your spouse, your kids, a classroom, an astronomy club, or anyone else! When you reach the donation form, select “yes” to indicate that this sponsorship is a gift, and then enter the name or group you want to credit. The recipient will receive an email with you cc’d. No ownership or naming rights are conferred by your sponsorship to you or the recipient. Your sponsorship is a fully tax-deductible contribution to the B612 Foundation.

These asteroids were discovered by searching across billions of moving objects seen in existing astronomical data sets. The THOR algorithm running on ADAM  is able to link together instances where the same asteroid was seen multiple times. If enough instances can be found, the orbit of that asteroid can be determined, and a discovery submission can be made to the Minor Planet Center for confirmation.   

The GIFs are made up of images used to make the asteroid discovery. The asteroid is in the middle of the green crosshairs. The arrow shows the direction of motion of the asteroid. Sometimes the exposure time of the image was long enough that you may notice that the asteroid appears streaked in that direction.  The numbers at top tell you about when and where the image was taken.  The first number is the date and time the image was taken in MJD (Modified Julian Date). The alphanumeric code after that is the Observatory Code (for example W84 is the Cerro Tololo Observatory Dark Energy Camera).  The numbers RA and Dec are the Right Ascension and Declination, which are the angles on the sky showing the location of the asteroid at the time the image was taken. After that is the filter used to take the image (for example R is a red filter) and the number following that is the magnitude of the asteroid, which is a measure of its brightness (from which an estimate of the size of the asteroid can be made once the distance is accounted for). The last number 𝛥t is the exposure time of the image in seconds. 

All donations are subject to PayPal processing fees. After subtracting these fees, the remainder of your donation supports B612 Foundation and our programs. There are no other deductions. You can make additional contributions in any amount by clicking here. Your sponsorship is a fully tax-deductible contribution to the B612 Foundation.

No, asteroids that are already sponsored can never be sponsored by someone else.

Within a few minutes of your payment, our automated system will send you a confirmation email. If you do not see this email, please look in your junk email (spam) folder. We will then create your custom gif and certificate and email it to you within approximately 48 hours of purchase.

The simple answer is: we are making it just for you! Each GIF and certificate is custom-made. One day, we hope to automate this process, but for now, sit back and enjoy knowing that you are one of the first to enable asteroid discovery through our Sponsor an Asteroid Discovery program!

Most of the time, your sponsored asteroid will be quite far from Earth and therefore only visible with large telescopes. However, we will provide you with a link to that asteroid’s interactive orbit sketch and more information on the Minor Planet Center’s website. Here is an example page of what you will receive. Be sure to click the “interactive orbit sketch button” to see where the asteroid orbits in the solar system. On the Minor Planet website you can see the orbit parameters of the asteroid, so if you do have access to a large telescope you can attempt to make further observations.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have! Send us an email to sponsor-discovery@b612foundation.org