It’s official: ‘Statio Shiv Shakti’ approved as name of Chandrayaan3 landing site
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) working group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name “Statio Shiv Shakti” for the landing site of Chandrayaan3’s Vikram lander. The approval was given on March 19.
Planetary nomenclature, like terrestrial nomenclature, is used to uniquely identify a feature on the surface of a planet or satellite so that it can be easily located, described, and discussed.
The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature “contains detailed information about all names of topographic and albedo features on planets and satellites [and some planetary ring and ringgap systems] that the IAU has named and approved from its founding in 1919 through the present time”.
The IAU is the internationally recognised authority for assigning names to planetary surface features. It follows some rules and conventions to do so.
The IAU’s Rule 9 states: “No names having political, military or religious significance may be used, except for names of political figures prior to the 19th century.” The citation in the gazetteer for the name of the landing site of the Vikram lander reads: “Compound word from Indian mythology that depicts the masculine [“Shiva”] and feminine [“Shakti”] duality of nature.”
On August 26, 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the point where the moon lander of Chandrayaan3 touched down would be called “Shiv Shakti”.
“In Shiv, there is a resolution for the welfare of humanity and Shakti gives us the strength to fulfil those resolutions,” Mr. Modi had said while announcing the name.