Ownership
Sun Squatting
Avantika Bhuyan Avantika Bhuyan 09 Dec, 2010
A Spanish woman claims that she owns the sun.
A Spanish woman claims that she owns the sun. Angeles Duran, 49, a resident of the small town of Salvaterra do Mino in Spain, told the daily El Mundo that she had registered the star as her local property at a local public notary in September. She made this decision after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon. The notary’s document declares Angeles to be the ‘owner of the Sun, a star of spectral type G2, located in the centre of the solar system, located at an average distance from the Earth of about 149,600,000 kilometres.’ Angeles has created quite a legally sound case for herself by finding a loophole in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which is a list of principles governing the activities of states in the exploration and use of outer space. Angeles claims that though the treaty prevents governments from staking claim to celestial bodies, it does not apply to individuals. She is no longer content just owning the sun; she wants to slap a fee on anyone who uses it.
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