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The guidelines for naming a planet’s surface features are not comprehensive enough and are biased against men, an academic says, as research shows less than 2% of Mars’ craters are named after women.
An analysis of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) database also found that only 32 (2%) of the 1,578 known lunar craters bear the name of a woman.
Planetary features are distinctive features or elements present on the surface of or within the planet.
In addition to craters, they also include mountains, valleys, canyons, volcanoes, oceans, deserts and much more.
In an open letter published in the journal Nature Astronomy, Annie Lennox, a doctoral researcher at the Open University, said the male-biased culture of naming planetary features “inherently disadvantages women and marginalized groups.”
Annie Lennox, in the photo, is a PhD candidate at the Open University. She said the male-biased culture of naming planetary features ‘inherently disadvantages women and marginalized groups’
Planetary features are distinctive features or elements present on the surface of or within the planet. (Pictured: craters on the surface of Mars)
She is urging the IAU – an international association of professional astronomers – to change its policy, which is “biased against cisgender (cis) white men.”
Mrs Lennox, from Aberdeenshire, said: ‘Space exploration has revealed worlds of rock, ice and… metal.
‘For all worlds in our solar system, it has become common to name prominent surface features such as craters.
‘Distant craters on the moon, Mars and Mercury capture a history much closer to home: celebrating the achievements of humanity, and to a much lesser extent, women.’
Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli first started naming lunar craters in 1635, adopting the names of famous scientists for his discoveries – a convention still maintained by the IAU today, Ms Lennox said.
Although the IAU does not provide the names itself, it does help set up working groups or task forces to propose and approve names for specific features based on certain guidelines – often honoring historical figures, mythology or cultural themes.
Ms Lennox said the IAU guidelines impact the diversity and inclusivity of the scientific communities that ultimately choose the names.
She said: ‘Surface features are named according to conventions established and maintained by the IAU.
“Frustratingly, elements of current conventions crystallize historical injustice and contribute to a lack of diversity within nomenclature.
‘This is an example of how the systemic underrepresentation and undervaluation of women and marginalized groups manifests itself in current scientific systems.’
Her research found that Mercury did slightly better than Moon and Mars in representing women: 49 of the 415 (11.8%) craters had a female name.
Ms Lennox believes this is because Mercury is a more recently explored planet compared to some others in the solar system and may have benefited from the increase in the number of women working in science, technology, engineering and maths.
Mars comes out the worst, with only five of the 280 (1.8%) craters named after women.
Meanwhile, all crater names on Venus have female origins, but Ms Lennox said only 38% are “named after real women who have made a real contribution to society”.
She said: ‘On the only planet meant to exclusively celebrate the contributions of women, more attributes have been given to meaningless, arbitrary female first names or the names of mythological goddesses than those of real women.
Mars comes out the worst, with only five of the 280 (1.8%) craters named after women (Stock Photo)
“The crux of this argument is that weighing celebrity status — which emphasizes recognition and essentially prioritizes fame over contribution — inherently disadvantages women and marginalized groups, regardless of field.”
Ms Lennox said researching the names of craters on different planets has been her starting point, but she is now working with teams around the world to analyze each named feature in the solar system.
She said: ‘I mentioned some craters myself.
‘I knew I wanted to name my discoveries after women because I noticed that there was a lack of female representation in the area I was studying, even though statistics on this are not readily available.
‘That realization was actually the reason for this whole project.’