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In astronomy, stars have a variety of different stellar designations and names, including catalogue designations, current and historical
proper name A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
s, and foreign language names. Only a tiny minority of known stars have
proper names A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
; all others have only designations from various catalogues or lists, or no identifier at all.
Hipparchus Hipparchus (; el, Ἵππαρχος, ''Hipparkhos'';  BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equi ...
in the 2nd century BC enumerated about 850 naked-eye stars. Johann Bayer in 1603 listed about twice this number. Only in the 19th century did star catalogues list the naked-eye stars exhaustively. The
Bright Star Catalogue The Bright Star Catalogue, also known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars, Yale Bright Star Catalogue, or just YBS, is a star catalogue that lists all stars of stellar magnitude 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the nak ...
, which is a star catalogue listing all stars of
apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's ...
6.5 or brighter, or roughly every star visible to the
naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnifying, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microscope, or eye protection. Vision corrected to normal ...
from
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
, contains 9,096 stars. The most voluminous modern catalogues list on the order of a billion stars, out of an estimated total of 200 to 400 billion in the
Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...
. Proper names may be historical, often transliterated from Arabic or Chinese names. Such transliterations can vary so there may be multiple spellings. A smaller number of names have been introduced since the Middle Ages, and a few in modern times as nicknames have come into popular use, for example ''Sualocin'' for α Delphini and ''Navi'' for γ Cassiopeiae. The
International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
(IAU) has begun a process to select and formalise unique proper names for the brighter naked-eye stars and for other stars of popular interest. To the IAU, ''name'' refers to the (usually colloquial) term used for a star in everyday speech, while "''designation'' is solely alphanumerical" and used almost exclusively in official catalogues and for professional astronomy. Many of the names and some of the designations in use today were inherited from the time before the IAU existed. Other designations are being added all the time. As of the start of 2019, the IAU had decided on a little over 300 proper names, mostly for the brighter naked-eye stars.


Proper names

Several hundred of the brightest stars had traditional names, most of which derived from
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, but a few from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
. There were a number of problems with these names, however: * Spellings were often not standardized ( Almach or Almaach or Almak or Alamak) * Many stars had more than one name of roughly equal popularity ( Mirfak or Algenib or Alcheb; Regor or Suhail al Muhlif; Alkaid or Benetnasch; Gemma or Alphecca; Alpheratz and Sirrah) * Because of imprecision in old
star catalog A star catalogue is an astronomical catalogue that lists stars. In astronomy, many stars are referred to simply by catalogue numbers. There are a great many different star catalogues which have been produced for different purposes over the years, ...
s, it was not always clear exactly which star within a constellation a particular name corresponded to (e.g., Alniyat could refer to
Sigma Scorpii Sigma Scorpii (or σ Scorpii, abbreviated Sigma Sco or σ Sco), is a multiple star system in the constellation of Scorpius, located near the red supergiant Antares, which outshines it. This system has a combined apparent visual magnitud ...
or
Tau Scorpii Tau Scorpii, Latinized from τ Scorpii, formally known as Paikauhale , is a star in the southern zodiac constellation of Scorpius. The apparent visual magnitude of Tau Scorpii is +2.8, while parallax measurements yield a distance esti ...
, Chara). * Some stars in entirely different constellations had the same name: Algenib in Perseus and Algenib in Pegasus; Gienah in Cygnus and Gienah in Corvus, Alnair in Grus and Alnair in Centaurus. In 2016, the
IAU The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach ...
organized a
Working Group on Star Names The International Astronomical Union (IAU) established a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) in May 2016 to catalog and standardize proper names for stars for the international astronomical community. It operates under Division C – Education ...
(WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin dated July 2016 included a table of 125 stars comprising the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN (on 30 June and 20 July 2016) together with names of stars (including four traditional star names:
Ain Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where ...
, Edasich, Errai and
Fomalhaut Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the "Southern Fish", and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Piscis Austrini, which is Latinized from ...
) reviewed and adopted by the IAU Executive Committee Working Group on Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites during the 2015 NameExoWorlds campaignFinal Results of NameExoWorlds Public Vote Released
International Astronomical Union, 15 December 2015.
and recognized by the WGSN. Further batches of names were approved on 21 August, 12 September, 5 October and 6 November 2016. These were listed in a table of 102 stars included in the WGSN's second bulletin dated November 2016. The next additions were done on 1 February 2017 (13 new star names), 30 June 2017 (29), 5 September 2017 (41), 17 November 2017 (3) and 1 June 2018 (17). All 330 names are included in the current List of IAU-approved Star Names, last updated on 1 June 2018 (with a minor correction posted on 11 June 2018). In practice, names are only universally used for the very brightest stars (
Sirius Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated Alpha CM ...
,
Arcturus , - bgcolor="#FFFAFA" , Note (category: variability): , , H and K emission vary. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Boötes. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, it is the third-brightest of the ...
,
Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, a ...
, etc.) and for a small number of slightly less bright but "interesting" stars (
Algol ALGOL (; short for "Algorithmic Language") is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the ...
, Polaris,
Mira Mira (), designation Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti, abbreviated Omicron Cet, ο Cet), is a red-giant star estimated to be 200–400 light-years from the Sun in the constellation Cetus. ο Ceti is a binary stellar system, consisting of a vari ...
, etc.). For other naked eye stars, the Bayer or
Flamsteed designation A Flamsteed designation is a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England. They are named for John Flamsteed who first used them while co ...
is often preferred. In addition to the traditional names, a small number of stars that are "interesting" can have modern
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
names. For instance, two second-magnitude stars, Alpha Pavonis and
Epsilon Carinae Epsilon Carinae (ε Carinae, abbreviated Epsilon Car, ε Car), officially named Avior , is a binary star in the southern constellation of Carina. At apparent magnitude +1.86 it is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, but is not v ...
, were assigned the proper names Peacock and Avior respectively in 1937 by Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office during the creation of ''The Air Almanac'', a navigational almanac for the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
. Of the fifty-seven stars included in the new almanac, these two had no traditional names. The RAF insisted that all of the stars must have names, so new names were invented for them. These names have been approved by the IAU WGSN. The book '' Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning'' by R. H. Allen (1899) has had effects on star names: *It lists many Assyrian/Babylonian and Sumerian star names recovered by
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
, and some of these (e.g.
Sargas Theta Scorpii (θ Scorpii, abbreviated Theta Sco, θ Sco) is a binary star in the southern zodiac constellation of Scorpius. The apparent visual magnitude of this star is +1.87, making it readily visible to the naked eye and one of the brig ...
and Nunki) have since been approved by the IAU WGSN. *It lists many
Chinese star names Chinese star names ( Chinese: , ''xīng míng'') are named according to ancient Chinese astronomy and astrology. The sky is divided into star mansions (, ''xīng xiù'', also translated as "lodges") and asterisms (, ''xīng guān''). The system of ...
(e.g. Cih alias Tsih), though these have not come into general usage. *Allen represented the "kh" sound by 'h' with a dot above (ḣ) and at least one astronomy book (by Patrick Moore), using Allen as a source, has misread this unfamiliar letter as 'li'.


Stars named for individuals

A few stars are named for individuals. These are mostly names in common use that were taken up by the scientific community at some juncture. The first such case (discounting characters from mythology) was
Cor Caroli Cor Caroli is a binary star designated Alpha Canum Venaticorum or α Canum Venaticorum. The International Astronomical Union uses the name "Cor Caroli" specifically for the brighter star of the binary. Alpha Canum Venaticorum is the brig ...
(α CVn), named in the 17th century for
Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...
. The remaining examples are mostly named after astronomers, the best known are probably
Barnard's Star Barnard's Star is a red dwarf about six light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus. It is the fourth-nearest-known individual star to the Sun after the three components of the Alpha Centauri system, and the closest star in t ...
(which has the highest known proper motion of any star and is thus notable even though it is far too faint to be seen with the naked eye),
Kapteyn's Star Kapteyn's Star is a class M1 red subdwarf about 12.83 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Pictor; it is the closest halo star to the Solar System. With a magnitude of nearly 9 it is visible through binoculars or a te ...
and recently
Tabby's Star Tabby's Star (also known as Boyajian's Star and WTF Star, and designated KIC 8462852 in the Kepler Input Catalog) is an F-type main-sequence star in the constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a ...
. The
International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
has held two
NameExoWorlds NameExoWorlds (also known as IAU NameExoWorlds) is the name of various projects managed by the International Astronomical Union (I.A.U.) to encourage names to be submitted for astronomical objects, which would later be considered for official ad ...
contests to give proper names to exoplanets and their host stars, in 2014/5 and 2019. As a result, several stars were named after people, including Cervantes for
Mu Arae Mu Arae (μ Arae, abbreviated Mu Ara, μ Ara), often designated HD 160691, officially named Cervantes , is a main sequence G-type star approximately 50 light-years away from the Sun in the constellation of Ara. The star has a planetary ...
, Copernicus for 55 Cancri A, and Rosalíadecastro (HD 149143) after the writer
Rosalía de Castro María Rosalía Rita de Castro (; 23 February 1837 – 15 July 1885), was a Galician poet and novelist, considered one of the most important figures of the 19th-century Spanish literature and modern lyricism. Widely regarded as the greatest Galic ...
.


Catalogue designations

In the absence of any better means of designating a star, catalogue designations are generally used. Many star catalogues are used for this purpose; see star catalogues.


By constellation

The first modern schemes for designating stars systematically labelled them within their constellation. *The Bayer designation is such a system, published by Johann Bayer in 1603. It introduced a system of designating the brightest stars in each constellation by means of Greek (or less often Latin) letters, and is still widely used. Bayer generally assigned letters by magnitude class: 1st magnitude stars received the earliest letters in the alphabet, followed by 2nd magnitude stars, and so forth (though there are many exceptions). The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 naked-eye stars, and several stars not catalogued by Bayer have been added by subsequent astronomers. *The
Flamsteed designation A Flamsteed designation is a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England. They are named for John Flamsteed who first used them while co ...
also lists stars by constellation, but by number rather than letter, ordering them by increasing right ascension rather than by decreasing brightness. These numbers were assigned not by Flamsteed himself but by the French astronomer J. J. Lalande in a French edition of Flamsteed's catalogue published in 1783. *The
Gould designation Gould designations for stars are similar to Flamsteed designations in the way that they number stars within a constellation in increasing order of right ascension. Each star is assigned an integer (starting at 1), followed by " G. " (or occasion ...
for stars visible from the southern hemisphere, introduced by
Benjamin Gould Benjamin Apthorp Gould (September 27, 1824 – November 26, 1896) was a pioneering American astronomer. He is noted for creating the ''Astronomical Journal'', discovering the Gould Belt, and for founding of the Argentine National Observatory and ...
(1879), also lists stars by constellation, numbered by increasing right ascension. *
Hevelius Johannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish: * * * * * * * Some sources refer to Hevelius as German: * * * * *of the Royal Society * (in German also known as ''Hevel''; pl, Jan Heweliusz; – 28 January 1687) was a councillor ...
and Bode both numbered stars within constellations similarly. Their number systems have fallen out of use, but their designations even now are occasionally mistakenly treated as Flamsteed designations.
47 Tucanae 47 Tucanae, or 47 Tuc (also designated NGC 104) is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It is about away from Earth, and 120 light years in diameter. 47 Tuc can be seen with the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of 4.1. It ...
, a number assigned by Bode, is a famous example.


Full-sky catalogues

Full-sky star catalogues detach the star designation from the star's constellation and aim at enumerating all stars with apparent magnitude greater than a given cut-off value. *The ''
Histoire céleste française ''Histoire céleste française'' (''French Celestial History'') is an astrometric star catalogue published in 1801 by the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande and his staff at the Paris Observatory. This star catalog consists of the locations and ...
'' (1801) enumerated 47,390 stars to magnitude 9. *The '' Bonner Durchmusterung'' (1859) was the most complete star catalogue compiled without the aid of photography. It listed a total of 320,000 northern stars, expanded by the ''Cordoba Durchmusterung'' (1892) and the ''Cape Photographic Durchmusterung'' (1896). *The '' Henry Draper Catalogue'' (1924) listed 225,300 stars to magnitude 10, extended to a total of 359,083 in 1949. The HD numbers remain in widespread use for stars that do not have a Flamsteed or Bayer designation. *The ''
Bright Star Catalogue The Bright Star Catalogue, also known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars, Yale Bright Star Catalogue, or just YBS, is a star catalogue that lists all stars of stellar magnitude 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the nak ...
'' of 1930 listed all stars brighter than magnitude 6. It was supplemented to include stars down to magnitude 7.1 in 1983. *The ''Catalogue astrographique'' was compiled between 1891 and 1950 with the aim of listing all stars to magnitude 11, resulting in a list of 4.6 million stars. It is under continued development, now under custody of the
U.S. Naval Observatory United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is a scientific and military facility that produces geopositioning, navigation and timekeeping data for the United States Navy and the United States Department of Defense. Established in 1830 as the Depo ...
. *The USNO-B1.0 catalogue contains over a billion objects, and is also under continued development at the U.S. Naval Observatory. *The online ''
Guide Star Catalog II The Guide Star Catalog (GSC), also known as the ''Hubble Space Telescope, Guide Catalog'' (''HSTGC''), is a star catalog compiled to support the Hubble Space Telescope with targeting off-axis stars. GSC-I contained approximately 20,000,000 stars w ...
'' (2008) contains 945 million stars to magnitude 21.


Variable designations

Variable stars that do not have Bayer designations are assigned designations in a variable star scheme that superficially extends the Bayer scheme with uppercase Latin letters followed by constellation names, starting with single letters R to Z, and proceeding to pairs of letters. Such designations mark them as variable stars. Examples include R Cygni,
RR Lyrae RR Lyrae is a variable star in the Lyra constellation, figuring in its west near to Cygnus. As the brightest star in its class, it became the eponym for the RR Lyrae variable class of stars and it has been extensively studied by astro ...
, and GN Andromedae. (Many variable stars also have designations in other catalogues.)


Exoplanet searches

When a planet is detected around a star, the star is often given a name and number based on the name of the telescope or survey mission that discovered it and based on how many planets have already been discovered by that mission e.g. HAT-P-9, WASP-1, COROT-1,
Kepler-4 Kepler-4 is a sunlike star located about 1610 light-years away in the constellation Draco. It is in the field of view of the Kepler Mission, a NASA operation purposed with finding Earth-like planets. Kepler-4b, a Neptune-sized planet that ...
, TRAPPIST-1.


Sale of star names by non-scientific entities

Star naming rights are not available for sale via the IAU. Rather, star names are selected on a non-commercial basis by a small number of international organizations of astronomers, scientists, and registration bodies, who assign names consisting usually of a Greek letter followed by the star's constellation name, or less frequently based on their ancient traditional name. However, there are a number of non-scientific "star-naming" companies that offer to assign personalized names to stars within their own private catalogs. These names are used only within that company (and usually available for viewing on their web site), and are not recognized by the astronomical community, or by competing star-naming companies. A survey conducted by amateur astronomers discovered that just over half of consumers would still want to "name a star" with a non-scientific star-naming company even though they have been warned or informed such naming is not recognized by the astronomical community.


See also

*
List of Arabic star names This is a list of Arabic star names. In Western astronomy, most of the accepted star names are Arabic, a few are Greek and some are of unknown origin. Typically only bright stars have names. History of Arabic star names Very old star names origi ...
*
NameExoWorlds NameExoWorlds (also known as IAU NameExoWorlds) is the name of various projects managed by the International Astronomical Union (I.A.U.) to encourage names to be submitted for astronomical objects, which would later be considered for official ad ...
*
List of proper names of stars These names of stars that have either been approved by the International Astronomical Union or which have been in somewhat recent use. IAU approval comes mostly from its Working Group on Star Names, which has been publishing a "List of IAU-approv ...
* Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning


References


External links


List of popular star names

The Naming of Stars
from the National Maritime Museum

* ttp://www.worldhistoryblog.com/2007/07/naming-stars.html Naming Stars {{Star Designation Designation Astronomical nomenclature