Star naming
At a private Sterntaufe (or a star , and Star sponsorship or Star sponsorship ) a designated by a catalog number will star named with a name of your choosing.
In science, all stars are given catalog numbers to enable easy identification. The only internationally recognized authority for star naming is the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which assigns names according to internationally recognized criteria and expressly distances itself from commercial providers of star naming. Very few stars have a traditional name that goes beyond that, which can also differ from country to country.
history
The science of star naming is only a little younger than mankind itself. Already in the Stone Age, our ancestors gave names to the brightest stars and the clearest constellations in order to be able to orientate themselves better, but also for reasons of belief and religion.
In western cultures, apart from the brightest stars, some planets and constellations, only a few individual stars have been given names. Usually only the brightest stars within a constellation were given their own name, such as B. is the case in the star catalogs of Claudius Ptolemy and Hipparchus . In the 9th century AD there was finally a lively exchange of astronomical knowledge between western cultures and those of the Orient . The famous Arabic astronomer Abd ar-Rahman as-Sufi translated the writings of the Occident in order to assign their star names to those of the Orient and expand them. When this work was again translated into Latin, it spread throughout Europe, which is why Arabic star names such as Aldebaran and Algol are still common today.
Johann Bayer finally developed a new form of naming or cataloging stars. He used this for the first time in his sky atlas Uranometria (1603).
The most important milestones in the history of star naming are listed below:
- 2750 BC Chr .: definition of the most important constellations of the northern sky in Mesopotamia.
- 800 BC Chr .: Continuation of the classification and naming of 48 constellations in Greece.
- 800 AD: the Greek works are translated into Arabic
- from 1115: Arabic literature is translated into Latin
- from 1600: naming of new constellations of the southern sky
- 1603: Johann Bayer's sky atlas Uranometria is published
- 1925: 88 constellations are established in Rome, which are still valid today.
Commercial star naming
There are commercial providers who generally name stars for a sum of money and enter them in a register. These entries have no scientific or official significance and only exist in the respective company-owned or in another privately managed list and on a printout provided to the customer. It is a purely symbolic gesture that basically anyone can perform themselves. Since the various providers each keep their own lists, it can happen that several “baptismal names” are assigned to a single star. The brighter and therefore rarer a star is, the higher the probability that such multiple names will occur. For the purchase price, the buyer receives a certificate made by the company, which contains the baptismal name and other text and, if necessary, a detailed map showing a section of the constellation of the baptized star. In some cases, a picture of the star or a sheet is supplied that contains detailed astronomical data for the selected star in addition to the coordinates.
The service is often advertised with an entry in a so-called international register. As a rule, however, this register is just another website of the respective commercial provider. Legally, therefore, only an entry in a private star register of a company is acquired; the buyer has no rights to the star itself or to its official name or designation.
Star naming is also used by non-profit organizations (NPOs) in the astronomical environment ( observatories , planetariums , astronomical associations and institutes) as fundraising or marketing means. The prices for a commercial star naming vary widely. The range extends from free to several hundred euros.
Renaming of several exoplanets
On an initiative of the International Astronomical Union , around 305 exoplanets , which were only given a complicated catalog number, were renamed in autumn 2015. For this purpose, everyone was given the opportunity to register on the website in order to vote for one of several given names. However, the organization emphasized that the new names are not intended to replace the scientific catalog numbers, but are intended to serve as official names in public.
The public vote ended on October 31, 2015, by then 573,242 votes had been cast. The results were published in December 2015.
Web links
- German translation of the IAU's English statement on star naming.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Get to know the constellations. Retrieved April 28, 2015 .
- ↑ Ssc2005-10c is looking for a cooler name. In: n-tv. July 11, 2014, accessed April 28, 2015 .
- ↑ NameExoWorlds Contest Opens for public voting. In: Press release of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). August 15, 2015, accessed January 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Final Results of NameExoWorlds Public Vote Released. In: Press release of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). December 15, 2015, accessed January 17, 2016 .