In May 2019 Space in Africa reported that the International Astronomical Union, working with Ethiopia’s Space Science and Technology Institute and Space Science Society, assigned the country naming rights for star HD 16175 and planet HD 16175 b in the Andromeda region.
Officials said the public would be invited to propose names, part of the IAU’s NameExoWorlds effort to link astronomy to national culture. Ethiopia later associated the names Abol and related coffee-ceremony language with its assigned world in the wider campaign record.
The star was described as several times more massive than the Sun, and the announcement was framed as recognition of Ethiopian astronomy work.
Kept as science archive, the IAU naming file shows soft-power science diplomacy beside the country’s harder fights over land and power.
Sources: Space in Africa