A coalition of astronomers is pushing to change the name of the Milky Way’s closest neighboring galaxies, arguing that the Portuguese explorer after whom they are named was a “murderer” who had nothing to do with their discovery.
The effort to rename the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud is led by Dr. Mia de los Reyes, assistant professor of astronomy at Amherst College in Massachusetts, who recently published an op-ed in the journal APS Physics stating the case. for the proposed nickname change.
The beauty of the two well-studied satellite galaxies is “overshadowed,” de los Reyes maintains, by the fact that they are named after Ferdinand Magellan, the leader of the first 16th-century expedition to successfully circumnavigate the globe.
“I and many other astronomers believe that astronomical objects and facilities should not be named after Magellan, or anyone with a violent colonialist legacy,” the scientist wrote.
“We would like the International Astronomical Union, the body in charge of naming astronomical objects, to change the name of the Magellanic Clouds.”
Not only was Magellan “a colonizer, a slaver and a murderer,” according to the Amherst professor, but, more importantly, “he was not an astronomer” and was not the first to document the two galaxies, which are visible naked eye. in the southern night sky.
A group of astronomers is calling for the Magellanic Clouds to be renamed. Universal Images Group via Getty Images The two galaxies are named after the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, best known for leading the first successful expedition to circumnavigate the globe. Heritage Images/Getty Images
“Indigenous peoples throughout the southern hemisphere have names and legends for these systems that predate Magellan by thousands of years,” de los Reyes notes. The galaxies were previously known by other nicknames, including the more scientific-sounding “Cape Clouds” and the more scientific-sounding “Minor Clouds.”
A scribe aboard Magellan’s ship described the two groups of cloud-like stars he observed during the voyage, which is how they eventually came to be known as the Magellanic Clouds in the 19th century.
David Hogg, a professor of physics and data science at New York University, agrees that the fact that Magellan is “murderous and horrible” is not the main problem with his name being associated with galaxies.
“The bottom line is that the clouds are not their discovery,” Hogg told Space.com.
“I can’t imagine how an astronomer could oppose changing the name of the clouds, since it doesn’t make any sense that Magellan is responsible for their discovery,” the professor added.
Despite the explorer’s obvious lack of connection to galaxies, his name appears in more than 17,000 peer-reviewed academic articles, according to De los Reyes.
The name of the slave-owning explorer is also associated with the craters on the Moon and Mars, called Magelhaens; NASA’s Magellan spacecraft; the twin 6.5 m Magellan telescopes; and most recently, the state-of-the-art Giant Magellan Telescope currently under construction.
Although Magellan has been celebrated through the centuries as a daring explorer who led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific Ocean and discovered the interoceanic passage now called the Strait of Magellan, he was also known for committing horrific acts against some of the native populations he found.
Dr. Mia de los Reyes, assistant professor of astronomy at Amherst College, argues that galaxies should not be named after Magellan because he did not discover them. Dr. Mía de los Reyes/X
A firsthand account of Magellan’s expedition cited in de los Reyes’ essay describes how Magellan and his men enslaved the Tehuelche people in what is now Argentina.
“He put iron handcuffs on the ‘younger and better proportioned’ men, telling them that the handcuffs were gifts,” says the astronomer. “In what became Guam and the Philippines, Magellan and his men burned villages and killed their inhabitants.”
De los Reyes, who is Filipino-American, notes that many people in the Philippines consider Magellan a “villain” and celebrate as a hero a local ruler named Lapu-Lapu whose forces killed the explorer during a battle on the island of Mactan in 1521. .
“Naming objects, buildings and places after people has long been a way for society to honor people for their discoveries, their achievements or the values they symbolize,” according to de los Reyes. “Magellan did not make astronomical discoveries and, for many, he remains a symbol of imperialist and anti-indigenous violence.”
Some 50 astronomers have already joined De los Reyes’ name change campaign, and another 50 have expressed interest in it, Science News reported.
The Milky Way’s two neighboring galaxies are visible to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere. REUTERS
“Virtually all the astronomers I have spoken to support me; the criticism seems to come primarily from a vocal minority of the general public,” de los Reyes told Space.com. “I’ve gotten a few emails from people, who don’t seem to be astronomers, telling me to ‘get back to doing science’ or that this is ‘wokeness,’ that kind of thing.”
The objective is to present the name change proposal to the International Astronomical Union and put it to a vote.
Several alternative names have been considered for the galaxies, including “Southern” and “Milky”, which would allow astronomers to continue using the popular acronyms LMC and SMC.
De los Reyes’ name change proposal echoes a failed attempt to rename the James Webb Space Telescope.
A group of scientists claimed for years that James Webb, a former NASA official, oversaw the firing of LGBTQ+ employees as part of what became known as the “Lavender Scare,” but an internal investigation found that Webb played no role in the persecution of workers for reasons of sexual orientation.
In recent years, the naming of geographic locations, buildings, military installations, and even holidays after objectionable historical figures has been in the crosshairs.
Earlier this week, the American Ornithological Society, responsible for standardizing English bird names across the Americas, announced a plan to rename about 80 species of birds after people as part of a campaign to eliminate nicknames. marred by racism and misogyny.” “
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Source: vtt.edu.vn