Can you buy a star or a planet?

Stars: names versus ownership

Stars can't be owned. There is no government to register a title and no court that recognises one. What companies sell is the right to have a name written in their own private catalogue.

The IAU has said publicly that commercial star-naming offers have no official validity. Official star names come from the IAU, and public naming campaigns for exoplanets have been run by the IAU with the public voting on names, free of charge.

Planets and the Moon: what the treaties say

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty says outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation. If no state can claim a territory, no state can issue deeds to it.

The 1979 Moon Agreement goes further and calls the Moon's resources the common heritage of humankind, but only a small number of states have joined it and none of the major spacefaring nations has.

What recent laws changed (and didn't)

The United States passed a law in 2015 and Luxembourg one in 2017 that let companies own resources they extract from asteroids and other bodies. Neither law allows owning the land itself, and both state that they don't claim sovereignty.

Courts have also been tested. In 2000 a US citizen announced a claim to the asteroid Eros and later sued NASA over landing a probe on it; the courts dismissed the case.

How to buy something honest

A good space gift tells you exactly what it is. Look for a seller that says plainly that it isn't property, tells you what you receive and doesn't use words like ‘title’, ‘deed’ or ‘official registry’ for a private list.

Obiblion sells digital parcels on a 3D model of the Solar System, each with exact coordinates and a public page. It states on every page that it isn't real estate, isn't a claim on any celestial body and can't be resold.

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