Hawaiian names approved for 2 asteroids

The International Astronomical Union has officially accepted Hawaiian names chosen by students to name two asteroids within our solar system.

Hawaiian immersion students chose the names Kamo‘oalewa and Ka‘epaoka‘awela for two recently-discovered asteroids during the 2018 A Hua He Inoa pilot program in 2018. That program, a collaborative effort by the the Universtiy of Hawaii at Hilo’s Imiloa Astronomy Center, seeks to weave traditional indigenous practices into the astronomical naming process.

While the A Hua He Inoa students chose the names last year, the International Astronomical Union only officially accepted the names this week.

Kamo‘oalewa was discovered in 2016 by the Pan-STARRS telescope on Haleakala. Its name is derived from a Hawaiian word referring to an oscillating celestial object, which alludes to the asteroid’s oscillating orbital path around Earth.

Ka‘epaoka‘awela, meanwhile, is an asteroid discovered near Jupiter in 2014 that revolves around the sun in the opposite direction of most other celestial bodies. The name, therefore, means “the mischievous opposite-moving companion of Jupiter.”

The two names are the second and third indigenous names to be accepted by the International Astronomical Union, behind ‘Oumuamua, which was named in 2017.