A coalition of astronomers is pushing to rename the Milky Way’s nearest neighboring galaxy, arguing that the Portuguese explorer named after them is 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 presenting the case. for the proposed moniker switch.
The beauty of the two well-studied satellite galaxies is “clouded,” de los Reyes argued, by the fact that they were named after Ferdinand Magellan, the 16th-century leader of the first expedition to successfully circumnavigate the globe.
“I and many other astronomers believe that astronomical objects and facilities should not be named after Magellan, or after other people with a violent colonial legacy,” the scientist wrote.
“We would like the International Astronomical Union – the body responsible for naming astronomical objects – to rename the Magellanic Cloud.”
Magellan was not only “a colonizer, a slave, and a murderer,” according to the Amherst professor, but more importantly, he was “not an astronomer” and not the first to document two galaxies, visible to the naked eye. in the southern night sky.
A group of astronomers is calling for renaming the Magellanic Cloud. Universal Image Group via Getty Images Both galaxies are named after the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, famous for leading the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe. Heritage Images/Getty Images
“Indigenous peoples throughout the Southern Hemisphere have names and legends for this system that predate Magellan by thousands of years,” de los Reyes said. The galaxy was previously known by other nicknames, including “Clouds of the Cape” and the more scientific “Nubecula Minor” and “Nubecula Major”.
A scribe aboard Magellan described two cloud-like groups of stars he observed during the voyage, and that’s how they eventually became known as the Magellanic Clouds in the 1800s.
David Hogg, a professor of physics and data science at NYU, agreed that Magellan’s “killing and hideous” nature is not the main problem with having his name attached to the galaxy.
“The main issue is that the cloud is not the discovery,” Hogg told Space.com.
“I cannot imagine how any astronomer can object to the renaming of the clouds, because there is absolutely no sense in which Magellan is in any way responsible for their discovery,” added the professor.
Although the explorer has less obvious ties to the galaxy, 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 attached to craters on the moon and Mars, called Magelhaens; NASA’s Magellan spacecraft; twin 6.5m Magellan telescopes; and most recently, the advanced Giant Magellan Telescope under construction.
Although Magellan has been celebrated throughout the ages as the brave explorer who led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific Ocean and discovered the passage between the oceans that is now called the Strait of Magellan, he was also known to have committed horrific acts against some of the natives he encountered.
Dr. Mia de los Reyes, assistant professor of astronomy at Amherst College, argues that the galaxy should not be named for Magellan because he did not discover it. Dr. Mia de los Reyes/X
First-hand accounts of Magellan’s expedition cited in de los Reyes’ essay describe how Magellan and his men enslaved the Tehuelche people in what is now Argentina.
“He put iron chains on the ‘youngest and best’ men, telling them that the mankel was a gift,” the astronomer said. “In what became Guam and the Philippines, Magellan and his men burned villages and killed their inhabitants.”
De los Reyes, who is Filipino-American, noted that many in the Philippines considered Magellan a “villain” — and celebrated as a hero a local ruler called Lapu-Lapu whose troops killed explorers 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 individuals for their discoveries, their achievements, or the values they represent,” according to de los Reyes. “Magellan made no astronomical discoveries, and for many, he continues to be a symbol of imperialist and anti-Native violence.”
About 50 astronomers have already signed on to the campaign to rename de los Reyes, and another 50 have expressed interest, Science News reported.
The two neighboring galaxies of the Milky Way can be seen with the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere. Reuters
“Almost all the astronomers I talked to were supportive; criticism seems to be mainly from a vocal minority of the general public,” de los Reyes told Space.com. “I’ve had quite a few emails from people – apparently not astronomers – telling me to ‘get back to doing science,’ or that this is a ‘wke-ism’ – that sort of thing.”
The goal is to bring the proposed name change to the International Astronomical Union and hold a vote on it.
Several alternative names for the galaxy have been revealed, including “Meridional” and “Milky”, allowing astronomers to continue using the popular acronyms LMC and SMC.
De los Reyes’ proposed renaming echoes a failed effort to change the name of the James Webb Space Telescope.
A group of scientists for years claimed that James Webb, a former NASA official, oversaw the firing of LGTBQ+ employees as part of what became known as the “Lavender Scare” – but an internal investigation found that Webb played no role in persecuting employees based on their sexual orientation.
In recent years, names of geographic locations, buildings, military installations and even holidays honoring historical figures who protested have come into the spotlight.
Earlier this week, the American Ornithological Society, which is responsible for standardizing English bird names across the Americas, announced plans to rechristen about 80 bird species named after people as part of a campaign to eliminate names that are “shrouded in racism and hatred of women.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
