The International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Star Names
formally approved 86 new names for stars, which are now in the IAU
stellar name catalogue. The catalogue now contains the approved names of
313 stars.
Traditionally, most star names used by astronomers
have come from Arabic, Greek, or Latin origins. Now, the International
Astronomical Union (IAU, https://www.iau.org) Division C (https://www.iau.org/science/
has formally approved 86 new names for stars drawn from those used by
other cultures, namely Australian Aboriginal, Chinese, Coptic, Hindu,
Mayan, Polynesian, and South African.
The WGSN consists of an
international group of astronomers who catalogue and standardise names
for stars to be used by the international astronomical community and
others. Last year, the WGSN approved the names for 227 stars. With this
new addition, the catalogue now contains the approved names of 313
stars. Modern star catalogues contain millions or even billions of
objects, most of which are identified by designations — strings of
letters and numbers indicating their position or ordering. The WGSN
reviews the names of the brightest and most interesting stars rather
than assigning designations using merely strings of letters and numbers.
Some bright stars have accumulated dozens of names and spelling
variations over the years.
“The IAU Working Group on Star Names
is researching traditional star names from cultures around the world and
adopting unique names and spellings to avoid confusion in astronomical
catalogues and star atlases,” says Eric Mamajek, chair and organiser of
the WGSN. “These names help ensure that intangible astronomical heritage
from skywatchers around the world, and across the centuries, are
preserved for use in an era of exoplanetary systems.”
Exoplanets are planets around stars other than our Sun, thousands of which have been discovered in recent years.
For
example, the names Xamidimura and Pipirima were approved for components
of the bright binary star Mu-1 and Mu-2 Scorpii in the constellation of
Scorpius, respectively. Xamidimura refers to the xami di mura — “eyes
of the lion,” a nickname for the binary among the Khoikhoi people of
South Africa. Pipirima refers to inseparable mythological twins from a
Tahitian legend: a boy and a girl who ran away from their parents and
became stars in the sky. 17th-century star atlas used Greek letters,
like lower-case mu, for stars in each constellation in approximate order
of brightness.
A total of eleven Chinese star names were
incorporated into the Working Group’s star name catalogue, with three
names coming from those of lunar mansions. Lunar mansions are vertical
strips of sky that act as markers for following the nightly progress of
the Moon, like a kind of zodiac, providing the basis for a lunar
calendar. The names of two ancient Hindu lunar mansions were included as
well: Revati and Bharani, for the stars designated Zeta Piscium and 41
Arietis, respectively.
Among the diverse names from around the
world assigned to bright stars by the IAU’s WGSN over the past year
include the Yucatec Mayan name Chamukuy (the name of a small bird) for
the bright star Theta-2 Tauri in the Hyades star cluster in Taurus. Four
Aboriginal Australian star names were also added to the IAU stellar
name catalogue, including the Wardaman names Larawag, Ginan, and Wurren
for the stars designated Epsilon Scorpii, Epsilon Crucis, and Zeta
Phoenicis, respectively, and the Boorong name Unurgunite for the star
Sigma Canis Majoris (an ancestral figure who fights the Moon).
Aboriginal Australians are among the oldest continuous cultures in the
world, going back more than 65,000 years, representing some of the most
ancient star names on the IAU list.
The brightest star with a
name adopted by the IAU in this latest batch is the 2nd magnitude star
Alsephina — assigned to the star designated Delta Velorum. The name
stems from the Arabic name al-safinah meaning “the ship,” referring to
the ancient Greek constellation Argo Navis, the ship of the Argonauts.
It was first used in a 10th-century Arabic translation of the Almagest,
the great book written by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second
century AD. Although the name originally referred to an entire
constellation, it was assigned to this particular bright star at least
as early as 1660, when it appeared in Andreas Cellarius’s Harmonia
Macrocosmica, a renowned 17th century Dutch magnificently illustrated
book about the cosmos. Numerous stars have names with Greek origins that
were translated to Arabic and then to Latin during the Middle Ages or
the Renaissance. Such convoluted histories for star names are not
uncommon.
Two bright stars, one in the northern constellation
Cygnus and another in the southern constellation Corvus, have been known
for centuries by the duplicate name Gienah of Arabic etymology. To
reduce confusion, the name Gienah was retained as the name for the star
Gamma Corvi, and Aljanah was approved for Epsilon Cygni, in keeping with
its original etymology (al-janah = Arabic for the wing).
Among
the nearest stars to the Sun, the WGSN recognized the name Barnard’s
Star, which has been in common use for a century, referring to the
famous nearby red dwarf star discovered by astronomer Edward Emerson
Barnard in 1916. The proper names for three nearby Sun-like stars were
approved in 2017 — including Alsafi for Sigma Draconis, Achird for Eta
Cassiopeiae, and Tabit for Pi-3 Orionis, the brightest star in the
“shield” of the constellation Orion.
PIO Contact:
Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Press Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
+49 89 320 06 761, cell: +49 173 38 72 621
lars@eso.org
Science Contact:
Eric Mamajek
WGSN Chair / Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Caltech, USA
+1 818-354-2153
IAUWGSN@gmail.com
Naming Stars Theme:
https://www.iau.org/public/
Working Group on Star Names:
https://www.iau.org/science/
Working Group on Star Names Bulletin 1:
https://www.iau.org/static/
Working Group on Star Names Bulletin 2:
https://www.iau.org/static/
Buying Stars and Star Names Theme:
http://www.iau.org/public/
Naming Astronomical Objects Theme:
http://www.iau.org/public/
IAU Division C Education, Outreach and Heritage:
https://www.iau.org/science/
Proper Names of Stars:
http://www.ianridpath.com/
African Ethnoastronomy — Astronomical Society of Southern Africa:
http://assa.saao.ac.za/
Australian Indigenous Astronomy:
http://aboriginalastronomy.
Charting the Chinese Sky:
http://www.ianridpath.com/
l-Sufi’s constellations (10th-century Arabic astronomer who kept alive the Ptolemaic tradition):
http://www.ianridpath.com/
The
IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together
more than 10,000 professional astronomers from almost 100 countries.
Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all
its aspects through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as
the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to
celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the
IAU is the world’s largest professional body for astronomers.
