Astronomers against Magellan

They are called the Magellanic Clouds – although they are actually two dwarf galaxies – and are visible to the naked eye in the night sky of the Southern Hemisphere.

Now, a campaign is underway to remove the Portuguese sailor’s name because of his “violent colonial legacy”.

“Magellan did terrible things,” condemned astronomer Mia de los Reyes from the prestigious Amherst College in Massachusetts (USA). “In Guam and the Philippines, he and his men burned villages and killed people.” Writing in a special issue of the journal ABS Physics, de los Reyes asked the International Astronomical Union, the agency responsible for naming celestial bodies, to evaluate the possibility of giving dwarf galaxies a new name.

Supporting this idea, Professor David Hogg of New York University argued that clouds were not discovered by Portuguese sailors.

Born in Trás-os-Montes, Fernao de Magalhães (1480–1521) planned and led the first circumnavigation of the world in the service of the Spanish crown at a time when astronomical knowledge was essential to navigation. Completed in 1522 under the command of Sebastian Elcano after Magellan’s death in the Philippines, this first round-the-world voyage conclusively proved that the Earth was round.

“Magellan did terrible things,” condemned astronomer Mia de los Reyes from the prestigious Amherst College in Massachusetts (USA). “In Guam and the Philippines, he and his men burned villages and killed people.” Writing in a special issue of the journal ABS Physics, de los Reyes asked the International Astronomical Union, the agency responsible for naming celestial bodies, to evaluate the possibility of giving dwarf galaxies a new name.

Supporting this idea, Professor David Hogg of New York University argued that clouds were not discovered by Portuguese sailors.

Born in Trás-os-Montes, Fernao de Magalhães (1480–1521) planned and led the first circumnavigation of the world in the service of the Spanish crown at a time when astronomical knowledge was essential to navigation. Completed in 1522 under the command of Sebastian Elcano after Magellan’s death in the Philippines, this first round-the-world voyage conclusively proved that the Earth was round.