Ferdinand Magellan, who murdered and enslaved indigenous people, was not an astronomer nor the clouds' discoverer.
In September, astronomer Mia de los Reyes published an op-ed in the journal APS Physics, representing a coalition of astronomers calling for the renaming of two iconic, deeply studied and shining irregular galaxies near the Milky Way. One of these star-studded realms is named the Large Magellanic Cloud and the other, for reasons you'd probably expect, is named the Small Magellanic Cloud. But most importantly, what these two satellite galaxies have in common is they're named after Ferdinand Magellan. Among other things, Magellan has gone down in history as the Portuguese explorer who murdered, enslaved and burned the homes of indigenous people while setting out to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe. As de los Reyes' article states, a first-hand account of Magellan's journey describes how he enslaved the native Teluche people, for instance, who lived in what is now Argentina, and placed iron manacles on the "youngest and best proportioned men." He's also recorded to have set entire villages ablaze in the region we now call Guam.
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