h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It just occurred to me in another thread that many things are named after people, and that some of these things are bigger than others. And being a bloke, I'm obsessed with size, so naturally the person who has the biggest thing named after them - WINS!

Example: the hoover, invented by... Murray Spangler (betcha thought it was invented by a guy named Hoover, huh? Well he just bought the patent...). Or the Hoover Dam, named after Herbert Hoover, 31st US President.

Obviously, the dam is a bit bigger than the vacuum cleaner, so out of those two, President Herbert beats W.H. "Boss".

Of course, Sir George Everest beats them both hands down. And Amerigo Vespucci did pretty well for a guy who didn't actually discover very much.

But so far, the guy who I *think* is in the lead is Ferdinand Magellan.

Can anyone beat that?

H.

I assume that Greek Gods are out of the question? Shame a ceratin planet didn't get named after ol' King George after all...

Aurthur C. Clarke's had an asteroid named after him. That's bound to be a couple of kilometres at least.

Ah yes, the Magellanic Clouds - tough to beat a galaxy for size! (I wonder if people were thinking about the Straits of Magellan ... ). I think that'll be the kicker, until someone gets an entire galactic cluster or super cluster named after them. (Not bad, make it across the Pacific, nearly circumnavigate the Earth, all in the 16th Century, then get a galaxy or two named after ya!)

- JD

Biggest things I can think of are the Gallilean Moons around Jupiter. Still doesn't beat the galaxy though.

Does Messier count, do you think? Probably not They're not really named after *him*, are they? "Messier 31"... it's a big 'un.

Any other offers?

H.

I was thinking of Halley's comet, but it's a peanut compared to a galaxy, huh?

My overdraft has my name on it unfortunately. At the moment that gives Magellan a run for his money.

I'm fairly sure a significant portion of all space-time has been attributed to some plank from Germany..

Though it seems he's been pipped at the post by a Frenchman, mentioned halfway down the page here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/561150.stm

H.

Barnard's Star is pretty big, but not as big as a satellite galaxy.

To my understanding, the Hawking Field is potentially infinite in size.

B

You gotta love astrophysicists with control issues..

'It's MY universe!'
'No, it's mine!'