Samcarin is asteroid #4784 and also known as 1984 DF1. Samcarin was discovered by the Belgian astronomer Henri Debehogne at La Silla Observatory. Samcarin’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.68 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.11, a period of revolution of 1 600 days, and an inclination of 3.5 degrees.

The name Samcarin was suggested by the SGAC Name An Asteroid Campaign. SGAC stands for Space Generation Advisory Council. Samcarin is, according to the official naming citation, meant to be the Sanskrit word for wanderer. But this isn’t correct! Because the naming suggestion came from people, who engage in astronomical research, so wanderer certainly was meant as an abbreviation for wandering star. This is a classic term for a planet, but the word can’t be formed this way in Sanskrit. Languages aren’t a matter of different words, but a matter of different concepts! I found a nice online dictionary. A planet is graha (ग्रह) in Sanskrit or also bha (भ), the latter probably meant for composite words. The sphere, where the stars are located, is svar (स्वर्) in saṃskṛta (संस्कृत), which is the correct Sanskrit word for Sanskrit. There is a word cārin (चारिन्) and this is one of several words (for different contexts), which indeed mean wanderer, but closest to “samcarin” is saṃcārin (संचारिन्). This doesn’t mean wanderer, but contagious, infectious!

A big mistake obviously was made in naming this asteroid. But you also could say that Samcarin snatched its name as celestial objects use to do! So here is an asteroid, that is useful for medical astrology. There it can show that a disease is an infection. The asteroid #4784 could also show that other things are contagious, for example some piece of information going viral. But Samcarin is most useful for medical astrology, especially during a pandemic.