Miscellaneous Named Kerbals
This is a Lore Page describing some of the Kerbals in Whirligig World lore
Fophie Kerman was an astronomer specializing in nebular spectroscopy, who was among the discoverers of the Great Comet. She was the first to track its orbit and predict its next appearance, and 30 years after her death, the comet 1P was named after her--1P/Fophie. She had only one arm and no legs due to contracting a fungal disease in her youth.
Bilburry was a kaywellian astronomer living in Podbaston City who devoted his short, diseased life to understanding the nature of stars. His work on sunspots was transformative, and as the first Mesbinite to suggest that perhaps Kaywell and other stars were not "burning masses of cave cheese" and were, in fact, being powered by nuclear reactions. During his solar observations, he also discovered a tiny asteroid transiting the disk of Kaywell, and then projected that it would later go in front of Shol. He would never live to see his asteroid, Wolda, confirmed--the atmosphere of Podbaston City was tragically vented into space by a malfunctioning AtMoCo sensor.
Gadgaster Mesoman was a science fiction writer who popularized the notion of intelligent life living in the gas giants, and his space opera series Tyepolbynar Strikes. Tyepolbynar was known only as The Bright Planet before this series--in the context of the books, Tyepolbynar was the local name of the planet according to its flying inhabitants. Gadgaster was a member of the Mesbin Astronomical Society's Public Relations Department, and he contributed to the official descriptions of some of the planets.
Criswayan Kerman was an eccentric astronomer who discovered the Valyrian moons Denna, Plaph, Oshan, and Manonam, and was in general very obsessed with the Valyr system in general. His antisocial and--frankly--weird nature obscured his intellect from most. His favorite snack was Plaphoglin.
Billy-Bobrik, astronomer and certified rich man, was a science communicator and philanthropist. His company, International Crayon Distributors, made him a multi-millionaire, and he spent a large amount of his fortune on astronomical public outreach. He founded the Billy-Bobrik Observatory, a very large public observatory, and accidentally renamed the planet Adjar to the modern "Egad."
A planetary astronomer who lead the effort to determine the nature of the "ghost satellite" now known as Yawer. He owned three small amateur-operated observatories. He spoke the conlang "Driddish," which was invented by himself and his friends and henceforth spoken by several small city-states across Mesbin.
The historical astronomer Gememma was an astrologer in her youth, before she became an atheist, skeptic, and abandoned astrology. She was one of the first astronomers to study the sky scientifically rather than for mere navigational purposes. She was known to have seven husbands and three wives, arranged into a complicated and experimental family which was quite unorthodox for her time. Her most important astronomical discoveries include the parallax measurements used to determine which of the many stars in the sky Kerbin orbited and her proof that the star Rodocer was in fact a dim red dwarf very close to Kaywell and not a bright and distant red giant. She was lynched by a gang of ravenous astrologers who were distraught that their Rodocer-centric predictions were disrupted by this result.
Annie Kerman was a solar and stellar astronomer who spent most of her time looking at Gememma. Her light curve data would be used to determine the existence of the planet Ammenon.
Crimmenon was an astronomy graduate student whose thesis involved the discovery of the planet Ammenon using Annie Kerman's light curve data. His discovery earned him a fair degree of astronomical fame, but he ended up quitting astronomy due to the stress and becoming a poet.
Lowel Kerman was an amateur astronomer and science communicator who had no shortage of absurd ideas, ranging from canals on Egad and Oshan, to the probably spurious and accidental claim of a planet orbiting Gememma. Although the planet Lowel bears his name, astronomy historians usually agree that although he claimed to discover it, it was not actually discovered until Giovan Kerman made his observations.
Giovan Kerman was the director of the Welgood Royal Observatory, and the probable discoverer of Lowel. His main work was in cataloguing star clusters.
Bickorabne was a planetary astronomer who searched for celestial bodies around Gememma and Reander. His discovery of two satellites around Mandrake and Rutherford was met with celebration.
Beagrid Kerman was the mother of Bickorabne Kerman, and the namesake of the satellite Beagrid. Her favorite hobbies are knitting and cave-painting.
Newfort was a physicist who proposed the existence of a Gememman Aether, and accidentally discovered Pragnik while searching for his aether with the Dolgoch Observatory's telescopes. When he lost a quite hefty bet regarding the existence of the Gememman Aether, he was forced to quit his job to pursue a more profitable job as an Agricultural Engineer.
Stern Kerman was an astronomer at the Donklan Equatorial Observatory, who made many discoveries relating to outer kaywell system minor bodies. His insistence that Pragnik is, in fact, a planet, has stirred up a decades old and quite useless debate about the definition of planet vs dwarf planet vs minor planet.
Gabbal Fredrodi Mesbalite was a landlord for the Izreek Appartment Complex and owned many hundreds of cubic kilometers of land, including the land directly underneath Statmun. According to the land ownership laws of the region, land ownership is defined by surface area, not volumes. Since Statmun is geomesbographically considered a mountain (Aetheris Mons), he therefore claims ownership of Statmun.
When he heard of the first spacecrafts to visit Statmun, he attempted to shoot them out of the sky with his shotgun. The subsequent bullet rain killed him.
Irgaster von Kerman was an early solar astronomer who first turned a telescope to Kaywell using the second Jerend Mesoman observatory, and though he went partially blind from his first observation, he was able to discover that Kaywell was actually two stars--with a companion that would be named Limnel. He later experimented with more safe telescopic image projection, and was able to observe and chart the orbit of the new star. His solar astronomy methods would be used for a long time until safe solar filters were developed to allow direct telescopic imaging to be done.
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