# Larry Kimura

larry kimura is a professor of the Hawaiian language and Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaii, Hilo in the Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani, College of Hawaiian Language. Kimura has been an advocate for the preservation of the Hawaiian language, and was a co-founder of ʻAha Pūnana Leo.Astronomers consulted with Kimura to create Hawaiian names for the first observed interstellar asteroid, ʻOumuamua, the first imaged black hole, M87*, and other notable objects discovered or imaged from Hawaii. == Pōwehi (M87*) == In April 2019, astronomers operating the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (part of the Event Horizon Telescope array), such as Doug Simons, approached Kimura to give a Hawaiian name to the recently imaged black hole M87* in the galaxy Messier 87, in recognition of the fact that the telescope was on Mauna Kea.