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| EXPLORE | SPACE
They may sound like characters from
the pages of Harry Potter, but Alfirk
and Grumium are actually the names
of two stars in the universe. Along with
225 other unusual-sounding monikers,
they’re part of a new registry of official
star names. The list was created by the
International Astronomical Union, the
group that authorizes the naming of
celestial objects.
For millennia humans have relied on
the stars to navigate seas and cultivate
crops, says astronomer Eric Mamajek.
Over time a single star could rack up
dozens of names with various spellings
and translations, many rooted in ancient
Greek and Arabic. Astronomers assign
alphanumeric designations to heavenly
bodies, says Mamajek, but people like to
use names for places: “You don’t refer to
your hometown by its zip code.”
Mamajek hopes the new list will pro-
vide all stargazers a streamlined lexicon.
Meanwhile, he and his team maintain an
internal index of every name they find—
at last count, about 3,500 for 950 stars.
NAME THAT STAR
By Catherine Zuckerman