Larry Kimura is a professor of the

Hawaiian language Hawaiian (', ) is a Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language o ...

and

Hawaiian studies Hawaiian studies is an academic discipline dedicated to the study of Hawaiians. It evolved in the second half of the 20th century partly in response to charges that traditional disciplines such as anthropology, history, English language, ethnology, ...

at the University of Hawaii, Hilo in the

Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani (KHUOK) College of Hawaiian Language is one of nine colleges and programs at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. KHUOK offers BA, MA and PhD programs in Hawaiian language and related topics including linguistics, liter ...

. Kimura has been an advocate for the preservation of the Hawaiian language, and was a co-founder of ʻAha Pūnana Leo. Astronomers consulted with Kimura to create Hawaiian names for the first observed interstellar asteroid,

ʻOumuamua Oumuamua is the first known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Naming of comets#Current system, Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, it was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā Obser ...

, the first imaged black hole, M87*, and other notable objects discovered or imaged from Hawaii.

Pōwehi (M87*)

In April 2019, astronomers operating the

James Clerk Maxwell Telescope The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is a submillimetre-wavelength radio telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, US. The telescope is near the summit of Mauna Kea at . Its primary mirror is 15 metres (16.4 yards) across: it is the larg ...

and

Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope The Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is located near the summit of Mauna Kea mountain on Hawaii's Big Island at an altitude of 4,204 meters (13,793 feet), part of the Mauna Kea Observatory. Operational since 1979, the telescope is a Pri ...

(part of the

Event Horizon Telescope The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a large telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes. The EHT project combines data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around Earth, which form a combined arr ...

array), such as Doug Simons, approached Kimura to give a Hawaiian name to the recently imaged black hole M87* in the galaxy

Messier 87 Messier 87 (also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, generally abbreviated to M87) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy with several trillion stars in the constellation Virgo. One of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local uni ...

, in recognition of the fact that the telescope was on Mauna Kea. Kimura came up with the name "

Pōwehi Messier 87 (also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, generally abbreviated to M87) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy with several trillion stars in the constellation Virgo. One of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local uni ...

", from ''pō'' 'darkness' or 'night' and ''wehi'' 'darkness' or 'adornment' to suggest "the adorned fathomless dark creation" or "embellished dark source of unending creation", found in the intensified form ''pōwehiwehi'' in the ''

Kumulipo In Hawaiian religion, the Kumulipo is the creation chant, first recorded by Westerners in the 18th century. It also includes a genealogy of the members of Hawaiian royalty and was created in honor of Kalaninuiamamao and passed down orally to his ...

'', a Hawaiian creation chant recorded in the 18th century. (''Pōwehiwehi'' means 'darkness streaked with glimmers of light', a generating agent of a stage in the development of life on earth as it advances toward the light, from ''pō'' 'darkness' and ''wehiwehi'' 'dappled shade'.) The governor of Hawaii declared 10 April 2019 to be "Pōwehi Day". Unlike Oumuamua, however, the name ''Pōwehi'' has not been submitted to the IAU, as the IAU has no provision for accepting names for galaxies or black holes.Seth Borenstein
Picture was clear, but black hole's name a little fuzzy
''AP News'', 12 April 2019

Notes

External links

ʻŌiwi TV

ʻAha Pūnana Leo: Language Nest

Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language
of th
University of Hawaii at Hilo

NSF
Living people Linguists from the United States Hawaiian language Hawaiian studies Native American language revitalization University of Hawaiʻi faculty Year of birth missing (living people) American academics of Japanese descent Hawaii people of Japanese descent {{US-linguist-stub

Pōwehi (M87*)

See also

Notes

External links