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.
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 “Fastandfurius”) but still very much in the spirit of the original. The live-action series is nowhere near as good.
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.
Thank you for sharing this, a great little TIL to go with my morning coffee!
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 “Fastandfurius”) but still very much in the spirit of the original. The live-action series is nowhere near as good.