this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2026
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Well, there's certainly a double entendre in chosing it as the name of a satellite, but it definitely comes from the name of tgat comic book character. Which itself is a play on asterisque (this symbol: *), which, of course, comes in turn from aster as you said.
His compagnon Obélix has a name which works on two levels: It can be seen as a play on obelisk (he is himself a sculptor of menhirs, which are vaguely similar to obelisks), but "obèle" is also the French word for the dagger symbol (†), which is an alternative to the asterisk.
Oh, I never knew about that second reference for Obélix!
I should really read them again, I probably missed 80% of the jokes as a kid.
Netflix has a new animated Asterix series which is really good, modernized (as far as the puns are concerned -- e.g. one of the Romans is named "Fastandfurious") but still very much in the spirit of the original. The live-action series is nowhere near as good.
Thank you for sharing this, a great little TIL to go with my morning coffee!