2023-05-26 11:50:08
The star hitherto known as GJ 486 and its planet will soon be renamed by the Basque words ‘Gar’ and ‘Su’. The WASP-166 system will receive, for its part, the names of ‘Filetdor’ and ‘Catalineta’, taken from the Mallorcan oral tradition. These designations have been selected by the International Astronomical Union within the framework of the Name ExoWorlds 2022 contest and have just been made public.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the entity in charge of the official name of the heavenly bodies. For years, he has been conducting a process aimed at naming some stars that have planets around them, to facilitate reference to these systems without having to resort to cumbersome numeric codeswhich are difficult to pronounce and remember.
At the same time, the procedure for choosing the names encourages participation popularwhich opens new avenues for the communication of astronomy and encourages the adoption of names endowed with cultural significance.
Giving names to celestial bodies brings science closer to citizens and makes it easier to pronounce and memorize
The naming process is organized by calls that include planetary systems of special relevance. Particular details are introduced in the calls that make each call a unique contest with a global reach. In the year 2022, the IAU commissioned its Office for the Popularization of Astronomy (OAO) to organize the Name ExoWorlds 2022 contest to name 20 extrasolar planetary systems.
On this occasion, the call favors proposals compatible with the objectives of the Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) declared by the United Nations.
Spanish proposals
Each national node of the OAO was in charge of selecting and prioritizing the proposals coming from their community. The Spanish node received 22 valid proposals and, in accordance with the rules of the contest, prioritized the three most outstanding among them.
Artist’s rendering of the surface of the hot super-Earth GJ 86b, now named Su. /BE
In this process, the transversal nature of the proposing teams and the carrying out of campaigns of high impact disclosure, both face-to-face and online. Of these three Spanish proposals, now the UAI has chosen two of them to make their names official in heaven.
‘Gar’ and ‘Su’, the Basque proposal
The star GJ 486, in Virgo, is a red dwarf 27 light years from the Sun. Around it orbits a rocky planet three times more massive than Earth. From now on, the star will be called Gar and its planet will be known as Su. These words mean ‘flame’ and ‘fire’ in Basque and refer to the Basque expression “su eta gar”, which literally means “fire and flame” and which denotes passion and enthusiasm.
“Su eta gar”, literally “fire and flame” in Basque, refers to passion and enthusiasm
The proposing team, headed by Itziar Garate-Lopezhas developed communication work that is embodied in its Gar+Su portal. The circumstance occurs that the planet Su it was discovered from Spain, with a key contribution from the Calar Alto Observatory and its Cármenes spectrograph.
‘Filetdor’ and ‘Catalineta’, the Majorcan proposal
The team headed by Sebastià Barceló Forteza proposed names in Catalan for the planetary system of the star WASP-166, in the constellation of the hydra and 370 light years from the Sun. The planet in this system is a gas giant with a mass slightly more than half that of Jupiter.
The star will receive the name Filetdor, while the planet will become known as Catalineta. The name of the star refers to Filet d’Ora golden sea serpent who stars in a Mallorcan fable from oral tradition (round it). In this fable, a little girl, Catalineta, after whom the planet is named, lives an amazing adventure as a result of an accidental encounter with the sea serpent. The informative actions of the proposing team are compiled on the Es Nostro Cel portal.
Other proposals
The third proposal selected by the Spanish node of the OAO had at the head of its team Antonio Quesada Ramos and suggested the arabic names Al Andalus y Al Hamra for the same system that has finally received the denominations in Basque. Al Andalus is the name of the medieval arabic spainwhile Al Hamra (literally, “the red one”) is the original name of the royal fortress of Granada that we know today as The Alhambra.
The new names of these planetary systems will be made official shortly and, in this way, the traditional Basque and Balearic cultures will have their place in the Galaxy. These Spanish names join those of the cervantes stars y Rosaliadecastro, with their respective planets (Quijote, Dulcinea, Rocinante and Sancho for the first, and Riosar for the second), which received their designations in previous editions of the Name ExoWorlds contest. The four official Spanish languages already have a presence in the firmament.
Fuente: Spanish Society of Astronomy (SEA)
Rights: Creative Commons.
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