Flickr CC: Nikosp!

The Sun. One million kilometers wide, 4.5 billion years old and, now, owned by a 49-year-old Spaniard.

Angeles Duran from Galicia in northwest Spain has claimed ownership of the giant star at the centre of our solar system, simply by walking into a public notary office and registering the Sun as her property. "There was no snag, I backed my claim legally, I am not stupid, I know the law," she told the newspaper El Mundo. "I did it but anyone else could have done it, it simply occurred to me first."

She got the idea from A. Dean Lindsay, who claimed a lunar deed of pretty much every celestial object out in the cosmos, back in 1936.

To put a stop to these nutty claims of extraterrestrial real estate, the United Nations published an Outer Space Treaty in 1967, currently ratified by 98 states, which says space is owned by all mankind and a nation can't claim sovereignty on the moon, a star or any other celestial body.

But that opened up a loophole. Governments might not be able to claim ownership, but private individuals can. So a new treaty was brought in, with the international Moon Treaty of 1979 that forbids private ownership of extraterrestrial locations. However, barely any states have agreed to that one, including Spain, allowing Duran to stake her claim.

Her plans? Well, they're financial of course. She wants to slap a hefty tax on anyone that uses the Sun (listen up, that's you), and then dole out the proceeds to a few choice individuals. 50 percent to the Spanish government, 20 percent to the nation's pension fund, 10 percent to research, 10 percent to ending world hunger and 10 percent to herself.

However, no governing body has yet granted any legal validity to these novelty and symbolic deeds of extraterrestrial ownership. Because, in most states and countries, simply claiming territory as your own won't stand up in court as proof of ownership. You also have to demonstrate an "intent to occupy". Yeah, good luck with that one, Angeles.

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