Rocinante

Rocinante (Spanish pronunciation: [roθiˈnante]) is Don Quixote's horse in the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. In many ways, Rocinante is not only Don Quixote's horse, but also his double: like Don Quixote, he is awkward, past his prime, and engaged in a task beyond his capacities.

Etymology

Rocín in Spanish means a work horse or low-quality horse, but can also mean an illiterate or rough man. There are similar words in French (roussin; rosse), Portuguese (rocim), and Italian (ronzino). The etymology is uncertain.

The name is a complex pun. In Spanish, ante has several meanings and can function as a standalone word as well as a suffix. One meaning is "before" or "previously". Another is "in front of". As a suffix, -ante in Spanish is adverbial; rocinante refers to functioning as, or being, a rocín. "Rocinante", then, follows Cervantes' pattern using ambiguous, multivalent words, common throughout the novel.

Rocinante's name, then, signifies his change in status from the "old nag" of before to the "foremost" steed. As Cervantes describes Don Quijote's choice of name: nombre a su parecer alto, sonoro y significativo de lo que había sido cuando fue rocín, antes de lo que ahora era, que era antes y primero de todos los rocines del mundo—"a name, to his thinking, lofty, sonorous, and significant of his condition as a hack before he became what he now was, the first and foremost of all the hacks in the world".

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Mu Arae d

Mu Arae d, also known as HD 160691 d, later named Rocinante, is an extrasolar planet orbiting the star Mu Arae of the constellation Ara.

In July 2014 the International Astronomical Union launched a process for giving proper names to certain exoplanets and their host stars. The process involved public nomination and voting for the new names. In December 2015, the IAU announced the winning name was Rocinante for this planet. The winning name was submitted by the Planetario de Pamplona, Spain. Rocinante was the horse of the lead character of the novel El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.

The planet has a mass about half that of Jupiter and orbits at a distance of 0.921 AU from the star with a period of 310.55 days. The planet may be located at a distance close enough to the star to receive a comparable amount of ultraviolet radiation as the Earth does from the Sun, however it is too close to the star to be able to support liquid water at its surface. Furthermore, given its mass, the planet is likely to be a gas giant with no solid surface.