{"id":7369,"date":"2021-01-05T22:38:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T03:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/?p=7369"},"modified":"2021-01-05T22:38:45","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T03:38:45","slug":"writing-prompt-star-registries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/?p=7369","title":{"rendered":"Writing Prompt: Star Registries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a scam. I <em>know<\/em> it was a scam. I worked at the International Astronomical Union for thirty years and <em>know<\/em> how celestial bodies are named. That\u2019s what made it such a funny gift when I retired: my team \u201cbought\u201d me a star. No, there\u2019s no such thing. There are commercial entities that maintain a \u201cstar registry\u201d \u2013 which is just a database of stars. You buy a line in the database &#8212; Right ascension 23h 13m 16.97632s, Declination +57\u00b0 10\u2032 06.0823\u2033 has the \u201cname\u201d of TinaM. What stops someone else from creating a database, throwing a bunch of coordinates of celestial bodies into a table, and selling you a slot in <em>their<\/em> table? Absolutely nothing! It\u2019s a scam. That star is really designated HD 219134! There are a few planets orbiting this star. At least two of which are super-Earths. I know this because I looked it up after being presented the \u201cStar Certificate\u201d at my retirement party last July. The certificate which hangs behind the desk in my office.<\/p>\n<p>Also? The certificate toward which the amorphous lavender blob draped across my desk is frantically gesturing with a protrusion that is vaguely arm-like. High-pitched whines emanate from within its form. The blob shakes violently, and a sliver box plops onto the floor. A holograph fills my office. Hundreds of lavender blobs are swimming in a shimmering, silver ocean. They dot the rocky shore. Suddenly, a spaceship appears above beach. A hatch opens and something begins to fall from the spacecraft. The ship begins to move, and the detritus quickly covers the beach and ocean. \u201cTina\u201d, a voice booms. \u201cIf you have the hubris to claim ownership of our solar system, at least tell the thwrrgs to stop shipping their rubbish to our beautiful, rocky shores.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a scam. I know it was a scam. I worked at the International Astronomical Union for thirty years and know how celestial bodies are named. That\u2019s what made it such a funny gift when I retired: my team \u201cbought\u201d me a star. No, there\u2019s no such thing. There are commercial entities that maintain &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1234,1233],"tags":[1239,1235,1238,1236,1237],"class_list":["post-7369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-writing","tag-fiction","tag-reddit","tag-stories","tag-writing","tag-writing-prompt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7370,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7369\/revisions\/7370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}