Some astronomers have decided to “decolonize” astronomy. In 2013, the Kuiper Belt Object, an odd-looking asteroid of made of two separate rocks smushed together, was named after the Powhatan word for “sky”. Using Powhatan rather than Greek and Latin monikers for celestial bodies is part of a broader attempt to “decolonize” and de-Westernize astronomy as a field. The scholarly removal of the West from astronomy draws from critical theory and history. Talks such as Haverford College’s discussion of Isaac Newton and the colonization of India delegitimize Western scientific achievements, while work by Smith College links the “commercialization of space” to threats facing indigenous communities by means of light pollution. Astronomical research attacking Western history and capitalism is the latest iteration of an academic discipline following identity politics and socialism to guide research.

At Cornell University, students concerned over racial oppression in the stars can take a cross-listed course on “Black Holes: Race and the Cosmos” that explores the question of whether there is a “connection between the cosmos and the idea of racial blackness”. Pomona College has developed a mandatory event on “Decolonizing Physics” for students studying physics or astronomy.