this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Magellan was murderous and awful but that isn’t the primary issue," David W. Hogg, a professor of physics and data science at New York University and Group Leader for astronomical data at the Flatiron Institute, told Space.com. "The primary issue is that the clouds aren’t his discovery."

Oops. How did his name even get attached to the clouds in the first place? The article doesn't give specifics.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Amerigo Vespucci didn't discover North or South America, either. Most asteroids that are named after people weren't discovered by those people. I really don't see how this is a big deal. Names are just labels.

[–] silencioso 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Following the same "logic": Let's rename Washington DC and Washington State because George Washington was a slave owner.

[–] ElectroNeutrino 8 points 1 year ago

It wouldn't be the first city that changed it's name, or even the first one to do so because of the racist history of the previous name.