- They are named after the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan
- He claimed to have discovered them during first circumnavigation of the world
Astronomers say the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds should be given a new title because of their namesake’s ‘violent colonialist legacy’.
The dwarf galaxies, visible to the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere, have been known about for more than 1,000 years after being spotted by indigenous peoples across South America, Australia, and Africa.
But they are named after the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who claimed to have discovered them with his crew during his first circumnavigation of the globe between 1519 and 1522.
This does not sit well with a group of astronomers in the US, however.
Mia de los Reyes, an assistant professor of astronomy at Amherst College, Massachusetts, branded Magellan ‘a coloniser, a slaver and a murderer’.
She added that he was ‘no astronomer’, nor was he the first to discover the galaxies because indigenous peoples had ‘names and legends for these systems that predate Magellan by thousands of years’.
Professor de los Reyes said she and ‘a coalition of astronomers’ were calling for the scientific community to rename the clouds, ‘as well as other astronomical objects, institutions, and facilities that bear his name’.
A lunar crater, a Martian crater, NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, the twin Magellan telescopes in Chile and the next-generation telescope under construction – called the Giant Magellan Telescope – are all named after the explorer.
‘I and many other astronomers believe that astronomical objects and facilities should not be named after Magellan, or after anyone else with a violent colonialist legacy,’ Professor de los Reyes wrote in the American Physical Society journal.
She said the explorer had murdered, enslaved and burned the homes of indigenous people during his circumnavigation, while also placing iron manacles on the ‘youngest and best proportioned men’ in what is now Argentina.
Of the Magellanic Clouds, Professor de los Reyes added that ‘the beauty of these starry objects is clouded by their names’.
She suggested changing the ‘m’ in LMC and SMC from Magellan to something like ‘meridional’, which means ‘of or related to the Southern Hemisphere’.
Another alternative, the professor added, would be to use ‘Milky’ because of the clouds’ association with the Milky Way.
But not everyone agrees that the dwarf galaxies’ names should be changed.
A number of X users criticised the plea and called it ‘#woke astronomy’.
Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East, also said it was ‘absolute nonsense’ to call for the galaxies to be renamed.
‘We can all look back on various different people’s involvement in the slave trade, but the reality is that if you’re going to start renaming everything that involved everyone from the slave trade you won’t have many left,’ he told the Telegraph.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is 160,000 light years away from us, while the Small Magellanic Cloud is around 200,000 light years away.
They orbit the Milky Way once every 1,500million years and each other once every 900million years.
The very first recorded mention of the Large Magellanic Cloud was by Persian astronomer Shirazi, in his Book of Fixed Stars around 964 AD.
Dr. Thomas Hughes is a UK-based scientist and science communicator who makes complex topics accessible to readers. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
