The left-wing UK Guardian launched an attack on Ferdinand Magellan. They call for his name to be purged from science.
Amherst College assistant professor Mia de los Reyes is leading the effort to get Magellan’s name purged from the field of astronomy. She wrote an article about it for Physic.aps.org last September. She calls herself the “first Filipino-American professor of astronomy in the United States.” The UK Guardian article promotes her activism as if her views are representative of “astronomers” in general. The Guardian could only find one other “astronomer” to quote, David Hogg, a physics and data science professor at NYU.
The Guardian article ends by comparing Magellan to Adolph Hitler.
Astronomy:
- Magelhaens (Martian crater), named in 19761
- Magelhaens (lunar crater), named in 19351
- The Magellanic Clouds, two irregular dwarf galaxies visible in the southern celestial hemisphere1
- 4055 Magellan, an asteroid discovered in 19851
- Magellan (spacecraft), a probe launched by NASA in 1989 to map the surface of Venus1
- Magellan Telescopes, two large optical telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile1
- Giant Magellan Telescope, an extremely large telescope under construction, also at Las Campanas Observatory, expected to be completed in 20251
Geography:
- Strait of Magellan, a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through the southern tip of South America, discovered and crossed by Magellan in 15201
- Magallanes Region, region of Chile1
- Magellanica, also known as Terra Australis, a southern continent (incorrectly) hypothesized to exist, appearing on many European maps between the 15th and 18th centuries1
- Magellan Bay on Mactan Island (the site of Magellan’s death)1
- The name ‘Pacific Ocean’ was coined by Magellan1
Biology:
