Stars named after people
Encyclopedia
Over the past few centuries, a small number of star
s have been named after individual people. It is common in astronomy
for objects to be given names, in accordance with accepted astronomical naming conventions
. However, most stars are not given proper names, relying on either long-standing traditional names (usually from the Arabic
), or catalogue numbers.
(IAU), which normally names features on planetary surfaces after people, and then lays down strict standards for this naming – craters on Mercury, for example, are named after "famous deceased artists, musicians, painters and authors". However, the right of choosing names for asteroid
s is given to the discoverer, pending IAU approval. This tends to produce an idiosyncratic collection of names – whilst many are named after mythological figures, or prominent astronomers, many more are named after popular musicians, obscure historical figures, or personal friends of the discoverer.
The IAU does not name stars, and has no intention of doing so; proper names are rarely if ever used by professional astronomers, and so there is no need for them to. Whilst many private companies will offer the "right" to name a star, for a fee, they have no legal standing to assign any star a name, and can offer no guarantee of the name being noted.
Leaving aside these attempts, the stars named after individuals fall broadly into two groups. The first group, mostly older stars, are those named openly for an individual connected with them in some way. The second, somewhat more obscurely, are those named after an individual but without explicitly making this clear.
In addition, many stars have catalogue names that contain the name of their discoverer. This includes Wolf, Ross, Bradley, Piazzi, Lacaille, Struve, Groombridge, Lalande, Krueger, Mayer, Weisse, Gould, Luyten and others. For example, Wolf 359, discovered by Max Wolf
. These are not strictly named after that person, although it may seem that way, but merely given a star designation
in the star catalogue
in which Wolf
published his discoveries.
(Note that Pandora's Star and Ratner's Star
are the names of novels, not actual stars.)
The earliest noted example was Sualocin and Rotanev (α and β Delphini), two stars which appeared in the Palermo star catalogue of 1814. They were eventually identified as the reversed spelling of Nicolaus Venator, a Latinised name of Nicolò Cacciatore, assistant to the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi
. It is not clear whether Piazzi intended to name the stars after his assistant, or if Cacciatore made the names up himself.
More recently, during the Apollo program, it was common for astronauts to be trained in celestial navigation
, and to use a list of naked-eye stars from which to take bearings. As a practical joke, Gus Grissom
gave names to three stars on this list — Navi (ε Cassiopeiae
), Dnoces (ι Ursae Majoris), and Regor (γ Velorum
). The names stuck, and were used through the rest of the program. Unknown to Grissom, these stars already had traditional names; however, those were not generally used, allowing the three other names to make their way into other records. Today, they are generally considered disused – some sources listing them as "traditional".
The three names are references to the three Apollo 1
crew:
It is possible, though unlikely, that more "traditional" names are in fact hidden names such as these, not yet identified. However, etymologies for most star names are not currently known.
and other companies sell "star names" to the public. It is the opinion of many astronomers that such businesses are fraudulent because the names assigned by businesses are not recognised by the International Astronomical Union
and have no official status. These companies have been urged to improve the information they provide to customers before purchase and fully disclose the nature of what they are buying.
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s have been named after individual people. It is common in astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
for objects to be given names, in accordance with accepted astronomical naming conventions
Astronomical naming conventions
In ancient times, only the Sun and Moon, a few hundred stars and the most easily visible planets had names. Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion, and more are discovered every year...
. However, most stars are not given proper names, relying on either long-standing traditional names (usually from the Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
), or catalogue numbers.
Nomenclature
The naming of astronomical bodies is controlled by the International Astronomical UnionInternational Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
(IAU), which normally names features on planetary surfaces after people, and then lays down strict standards for this naming – craters on Mercury, for example, are named after "famous deceased artists, musicians, painters and authors". However, the right of choosing names for asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
s is given to the discoverer, pending IAU approval. This tends to produce an idiosyncratic collection of names – whilst many are named after mythological figures, or prominent astronomers, many more are named after popular musicians, obscure historical figures, or personal friends of the discoverer.
The IAU does not name stars, and has no intention of doing so; proper names are rarely if ever used by professional astronomers, and so there is no need for them to. Whilst many private companies will offer the "right" to name a star, for a fee, they have no legal standing to assign any star a name, and can offer no guarantee of the name being noted.
Leaving aside these attempts, the stars named after individuals fall broadly into two groups. The first group, mostly older stars, are those named openly for an individual connected with them in some way. The second, somewhat more obscurely, are those named after an individual but without explicitly making this clear.
Openly named stars
There is a small group of stars whose common names honour individuals. Many of these were highly significant in some way when discovered, usually through having some unusual characteristic.- Baade's Star, as the Crab PulsarCrab PulsarThe Crab Pulsar is a relatively young neutron star. The star is the central star in the Crab Nebula, a remnant of the supernova SN 1054, which was widely observed on Earth in the year 1054...
is sometimes known. Named for Walter BaadeWalter BaadeWilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade was a German astronomer who worked in the USA from 1931 to 1959.-Biography:He took advantage of wartime blackout conditions during World War II, which reduced light pollution at Mount Wilson Observatory, to resolve stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy for the...
who first positively associated this star with the Crab NebulaCrab NebulaThe Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus...
. - Barnard's StarBarnard's starBarnard's Star, also known occasionally as Barnard's "Runaway" Star, is a very low-mass red dwarf star approximately six light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus . In 1916, the American astronomer E.E...
, is a small red dwarfRed dwarfAccording to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively cool star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type....
named after E. E. Barnard, who discovered it in 1916, the star with the highest known proper motionProper motionThe proper motion of a star is its angular change in position over time as seen from the center of mass of the solar system. It is measured in seconds of arc per year, arcsec/yr, where 3600 arcseconds equal one degree. This contrasts with radial velocity, which is the time rate of change in...
. - Bessel's Star, more renowned under its usual name 61 Cygni, was for a short time the nearest star whose distance was accurately known, its distance measured by Friedrich BesselFriedrich Bessel-References:* John Frederick William Herschel, A brief notice of the life, researches, and discoveries of Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, London: Barclay, 1847 -External links:...
in 1838. This star is also called Piazzi's Flying Star, since Giuseppe PiazziGiuseppe PiazziGiuseppe Piazzi was an Italian Catholic priest of the Theatine order, mathematician, and astronomer. He was born in Ponte in Valtellina, and died in Naples. He established an observatory at Palermo, now the Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo – Giuseppe S...
appointed it as a good candidate for distance measurements (parallaxes). - Van Biesbroeck's Star or VB 10VB 10VB 10, also referred to as Van Biesbroeck's star, is a very small and very dim M-type red dwarf star located in the constellation Aquila...
is a very small, faint, red dwarfRed dwarfAccording to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively cool star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type....
named after George Van BiesbroeckGeorge Van BiesbroeckGeorge A. Van Biesbroeck was a Belgian-American astronomer. He worked at observatories in Belgium, Germany and the United States. He specialized in the observation of double stars, asteroids and comets...
, who discovered it in 1944 – the smallest and faintest star then known. - Cayrel's StarCayrel's StarBPS CS31082-0001, named Cayrel's Star, is an old Population II star located in a distance of 4 kpc in the Galactic Halo. It belongs to the class of ultra-metal-poor stars , especially the very rare subclass of neutron-capture enhanced stars. It was discovered by Tim C...
is an ultra-metal-poor halo star named after the French astronomer Roger CayrelRoger CayrelRoger Victor Emile Cayrel is a French astronomer. His main interests are stellar atmospheres, galactic chemical evolution and metal-poor stars....
. - Cor CaroliCor CaroliCor Caroli is the brightest star in the northern constellation Canes Venatici...
(α Canum Venaticorum), although only 3rd magnitude, is the brightest star in the modern constellation Canes VenaticiCanes VenaticiCanes Venatici is one of the 88 official modern constellations. It is a small northern constellation that was created by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. Its name is Latin for "hunting dogs", and the constellation is often depicted in illustrations as representing the dogs of Boötes the...
(the Hunting Dogs). Cor Caroli, originally Cor Caroli Regis Martyris, which is Latin for "Heart of Charles", was named in honor of King Charles I of EnglandCharles I of EnglandCharles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
who was executed in the aftermath of the Second English Civil WarSecond English Civil WarThe Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the...
. - Herschel's Garnet StarMu CepheiMu Cephei , also known as Herschel's Garnet Star, is a red supergiant star in the constellation Cepheus. It is one of the largest and most luminous stars known in the Milky Way...
, also known as Mu Cephei, is a red supergiant particularly remarkable for its deep red color, first described by William HerschelWilliam HerschelSir Frederick William Herschel, KH, FRS, German: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel was a German-born British astronomer, technical expert, and composer. Born in Hanover, Wilhelm first followed his father into the Military Band of Hanover, but emigrated to Britain at age 19...
. - R LeporisR LeporisR Leporis , sometimes called Hind's Crimson Star, is a well-known variable star in the constellation Lepus, near its border with Eridanus. It is designated "R" in the chart to the right....
is a long-period variable starVariable starA star is classified as variable if its apparent magnitude as seen from Earth changes over time, whether the changes are due to variations in the star's actual luminosity, or to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth...
, sometimes known as Hind's Crimson Star after the discoverer John Russell HindJohn Russell HindJohn Russell Hind FRS was an English astronomer.- Life and work :John Russell Hind was born in 1823 in Nottingham, the son of lace manufacturer John Hind, and was educated at Nottingham High School...
. It is one of the reddest stars visible. - Innes' Star, better known as LHS 40, this is a high proper motionProper motionThe proper motion of a star is its angular change in position over time as seen from the center of mass of the solar system. It is measured in seconds of arc per year, arcsec/yr, where 3600 arcseconds equal one degree. This contrasts with radial velocity, which is the time rate of change in...
star named after the discoverer of Proxima CentauriProxima CentauriProxima Centauri is a red dwarf star about 4.2 light-years distant in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes, the Director of the Union Observatory in South Africa, and is the nearest known star to the Sun, although it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye...
. In 1930 Luyten listed this as the fifth closest star system, but his belief was mistaken as it turned out to be 41 light years away. - Kapteyn's StarKapteyn's StarKapteyn's Star is a class M1 red dwarf star about 13 light years from Earth in the southern constellation of Pictor. With a magnitude of nearly 9 it is visible through binoculars or a telescope.-History:...
, a subdwarf, was discovered in 1897 by Jacobus KapteynJacobus KapteynJacobus Cornelius Kapteyn, was a Dutch astronomer, best known for his extensive studies of the Milky Way and as the first discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation....
, the star with the highest known proper motionProper motionThe proper motion of a star is its angular change in position over time as seen from the center of mass of the solar system. It is measured in seconds of arc per year, arcsec/yr, where 3600 arcseconds equal one degree. This contrasts with radial velocity, which is the time rate of change in...
at the time of its discovery. - Krzeminski's StarKrzeminski's StarKrzeminski's Star is a 20.5 solar mass slightly evolved blue supergiant with a radius of 11.8 solar radii and spectral type O6.5II. It is estimate to be 8 kpc distant...
is a blue supergiantSupergiantSupergiants are among the most massive stars. They occupy the top region of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. In the Yerkes spectral classification, supergiants are class Ia or Ib . They typically have bolometric absolute magnitudes between -5 and -12...
, part of the pulsarPulsarA pulsar is a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. The radiation can only be observed when the beam of emission is pointing towards the Earth. This is called the lighthouse effect and gives rise to the pulsed nature that gives pulsars their name...
Centaurus X-3Centaurus X-3Centaurus X-3 is an X-ray pulsar with a period of 4.84 seconds. It was the first X-ray pulsar to be discovered, and the third X-ray source to be discovered in the constellation Centaurus.-History:...
, discovered by the Polish astronomer Wojcech Krzemiński in 1974. - Luyten's StarLuyten's StarLuyten's Star is a red dwarf star in the constellation Canis Minor. It is located at a distance of around 12.36 light-years and has a visual magnitude of 9.9, making it too faint to be viewed with the unaided eye. It is named after Willem Jacob Luyten, who first determined its proper motion.This...
, another red dwarf, is named after Willem Jacob LuytenWillem Jacob LuytenWillem Jacob Luyten was a Dutch-American astronomer.-Life:Jacob Luyten was born in Semarang, Java, at the time part of the Dutch East Indies. His mother was Cornelia M. Francken and his father Jacob Luyten, a French teacher.At the age of 11 he observed Halley's comet, which started his...
, its discoverer. - Van Maanen's StarVan Maanen's starVan Maanen's star is a white dwarf star. Out of the white dwarfs known, it is the third closest to the Sun, after Sirius B and Procyon B, in that order, and the closest known solitary white dwarf...
is a white dwarfWhite dwarfA white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a small star composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. They are very dense; a white dwarf's mass is comparable to that of the Sun and its volume is comparable to that of the Earth. Its faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored...
, discovered in 1917 by Adriaan van MaanenAdriaan Van MaanenAdriaan van Maanen was a Dutch–American astronomer.Van Maanen, born into a well-to-do family in Friesland, studied astronomy at the University of Utrecht and worked briefly at the University of Groningen...
, only the second white dwarf discovered. - Plaskett's starPlaskett's starPlaskett's Star is a spectroscopic binary at a distance of around 6600 light-years...
(formal name HR 2422 Monocerotis) is one of the most massive binary stars known, with a total mass of about one hundred times that of the SunSunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. It is named after John Stanley PlaskettJohn Stanley PlaskettJohn Stanley Plaskett FRS was a Canadian astronomer.He worked as a machinist, and was offered a job as a mechanician at the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, constructing apparatuses and assisting with demonstrations during lectures...
, the Canadian astronomer who discovered its binary nature in 1922. - Przybylski's StarPrzybylski's starPrzybylski's Star , or HD 101065, is a peculiar star that is located about 410 light years from the Sun in the constellation Centaurus....
(also called HD 101065) is a star that shows unusually high abundance of lanthanide elements in its spectral lines. - Teegarden's StarTeegarden's starTeegarden's Star, also known as SO J025300.5+165258, is an M-type red dwarf star or brown dwarf in the constellation Aries, located about 12 light years from the Solar System. Despite its proximity to Earth it is a dim magnitude 15 and can only be seen through large telescopes. This star was found...
is the most recent example, a red dwarf discovered in data taken by NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Near Earth Asteroid TrackingNear Earth Asteroid TrackingNear-Earth Asteroid Tracking is a program run by NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory to discover near-Earth objects. The NEAT project began in December 1995 and ran until April 2007.-History:...
program in 2003, and named after Bonnard Teegarden, the NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
astrophysicist that led the team. - SN 1604SN 1604Supernova 1604, also known as Kepler's Supernova, Kepler's Nova or Kepler's Star, was a supernova that occurred in the Milky Way, in the constellation Ophiuchus. , it is the last supernova to have been unquestionably observed in our own galaxy, occurring no farther than 6 kiloparsecs or about...
, a supernova, was known as Kepler's Star when first observed, after Johannes KeplerJohannes KeplerJohannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican...
, although he had not discovered it, he simply studied it extensively. - Likewise, SN 1572SN 1572SN 1572 , "B Cassiopeiae" , or 3C 10 was a supernova of Type Ia in the constellation Cassiopeia, one of about eight supernovae visible to the naked eye in historical records...
was known as Tycho's Star, after Tycho BraheTycho BraheTycho Brahe , born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, was a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations...
, though he did not have priority of discovery.
In addition, many stars have catalogue names that contain the name of their discoverer. This includes Wolf, Ross, Bradley, Piazzi, Lacaille, Struve, Groombridge, Lalande, Krueger, Mayer, Weisse, Gould, Luyten and others. For example, Wolf 359, discovered by Max Wolf
Max Wolf
Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography...
. These are not strictly named after that person, although it may seem that way, but merely given a star designation
Star designation
Designations of stars are done by the International Astronomical Union . Many of the star names in use today were inherited from the time before the IAU existed. Other names, mainly for variable stars , are being added all the time.Approximately 10,000 stars are visible to the naked eye...
in the star catalogue
Star catalogue
A star catalogue, or star catalog, is an astronomical catalogue that lists stars. In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. There are a great many different star catalogues which have been produced for different purposes over the years, and this article covers only some...
in which Wolf
Max Wolf
Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography...
published his discoveries.
(Note that Pandora's Star and Ratner's Star
Ratner's Star
Ratner's Star is a 1976 novel by Don DeLillo. It relates the story of a child prodigy mathematician who arrives at a secret installation to work on the problem of deciphering a mysterious message that appears to come from outer space. The novel is told in two parts; the first is a conventional...
are the names of novels, not actual stars.)
Covertly named stars
However, some names have been given unofficially, and worked their way into star catalogues and thus to "formal" acceptance.The earliest noted example was Sualocin and Rotanev (α and β Delphini), two stars which appeared in the Palermo star catalogue of 1814. They were eventually identified as the reversed spelling of Nicolaus Venator, a Latinised name of Nicolò Cacciatore, assistant to the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi
Giuseppe Piazzi
Giuseppe Piazzi was an Italian Catholic priest of the Theatine order, mathematician, and astronomer. He was born in Ponte in Valtellina, and died in Naples. He established an observatory at Palermo, now the Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo – Giuseppe S...
. It is not clear whether Piazzi intended to name the stars after his assistant, or if Cacciatore made the names up himself.
More recently, during the Apollo program, it was common for astronauts to be trained in celestial navigation
Celestial navigation
Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is a position fixing technique that has evolved over several thousand years to help sailors cross oceans without having to rely on estimated calculations, or dead reckoning, to know their position...
, and to use a list of naked-eye stars from which to take bearings. As a practical joke, Gus Grissom
Gus Grissom
Virgil Ivan Grissom , , better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot...
gave names to three stars on this list — Navi (ε Cassiopeiae
Epsilon Cassiopeiae
Epsilon Cassiopeiae is a star system in the constellation Cassiopeia. It has the traditional name Segin....
), Dnoces (ι Ursae Majoris), and Regor (γ Velorum
Gamma Velorum
Gamma Velorum is a star system in the constellation Vela. At magnitude +1.7, it is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It has the traditional names Suhail and Suhail al Muhlif, which confusingly also apply to Lambda Velorum...
). The names stuck, and were used through the rest of the program. Unknown to Grissom, these stars already had traditional names; however, those were not generally used, allowing the three other names to make their way into other records. Today, they are generally considered disused – some sources listing them as "traditional".
The three names are references to the three Apollo 1
Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program, with a target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral killed all three crew members: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus"...
crew:
- Navi is Ivan spelled backwards, the middle name of Virgil Ivan "Gus" GrissomGus GrissomVirgil Ivan Grissom , , better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot...
. - Dnoces is Second spelled backwards, alluding to Edward Higgins White, IIEdward Higgins WhiteEdward Higgins White, II was an engineer, United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to "walk" in space. White died along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the first manned Apollo mission at...
. - Regor is Roger spelled backwards, the first name of Roger Bruce ChaffeeRoger B. ChaffeeRoger Bruce Chaffee was an American aeronautical engineer and a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program. Chaffee died along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Ed White during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Kennedy...
.
It is possible, though unlikely, that more "traditional" names are in fact hidden names such as these, not yet identified. However, etymologies for most star names are not currently known.
Commercial "star naming"
International Star RegistryInternational Star Registry
The International Star Registry , founded in 1979, is a company which sells products related to entries in the Your Place in the Cosmos book published by the company every 2 – 3 years. As of 2009, the company has produced 8 volumes of the book which includes customers from August 2004 through July...
and other companies sell "star names" to the public. It is the opinion of many astronomers that such businesses are fraudulent because the names assigned by businesses are not recognised by the International Astronomical Union
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
and have no official status. These companies have been urged to improve the information they provide to customers before purchase and fully disclose the nature of what they are buying.