Geminga

modern name for PSR B0633+17 Astrophysically important nearby pulsar – 1127 references. NASA ADS lists 844 publications with “Geminga” in abstract. Name listed in Lortet & Spite (1986) IAU dictionary of names.

screenshot of the publication of the name "Geminga"

Etymology and History

Geminga is an artificially invented term for the gamma-ray and X-ray pulsar discovered and named by Giovanni Bignani+ 1983, see footnote below. Bignami (1944-2017) was Italian physicist, later chairman of Italian Space Agency (2007-2008)

The authors explain the pun: "This source is in the constellation of Gemini and it is a gamma-ray source. Pronounced with both G's as in "get", the word means "does not exist" or "it's not there" in Milanese dialect.

IAU Star Name

Name already in SIMBAD: https://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=Geminga Wikipedia

WGSN registered this name in their IAU-Catalog of Star Names in 2022.