'Rosalía de Castro' and 'Río Sar' are the names chosen by Spain for a star and a planet, respectively, in a popular vote organized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to baptize different stars outside the Solar System.

The star and the planet assigned to Spain that now have the name of the Galician writer and the river are in the constellation Ofiuco , known as 'The snake hunter', located 240 light years from Earth, as announced by the IAU, which celebrates its centenary with this project in more than 110 countries.

'Rosalia de Castro' is a yellow dwarf star similar to our sun, formerly known as 'HD 149143' and orbits 'Sar River', a gaseous planet 1.3 times larger than Jupiter.

The Spanish names were chosen in an 'online' vote held between October 23 and November 12 of this year in which 34,000 people participated and with 39% of the votes the proposal of the Corunna Astronomical Group IO that wanted to honor "the most important figure of Galician culture".

The writer (1837-1885) is one of the great poets of the Spanish twentieth century and is the author among others of 'Cantares Gallegos', 'Follas novas' or 'En shores del Sar'.

Precisely the name chosen for the planet that orbits the star is this river Sar, tributary of the Ulla and present in the work of the writer.

As the constellation is called 'The snake hunter', some Spanish proposals revolved around this theme as Culebre and Xaana, characters from Asturian mythology, Culebra or Malpolón, or Zamenis and Ophion, in reference to Greek mythology.

Other options proposed by Spanish astronomical groups were Sunflower and Petal, the lovers of Teruel, Isabel and Diego, the explorer Elcano and his ship Victoria, or Tirant and Carmesina, characters of a chivalrous novel published in 1490.

The International Astronomical Union assigned a star and a planet that was visible from the chosen country and that was bright enough to glimpse them with a small telescope from the latitude of the country.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • science