Six months later, Professor Kimura’s insights would draw much wider attention as officials credited him with giving a name to the first-ever picture of a black hole.

Image Larry Kimura, an associate professor of Hawaiian language and studies at the University of Hawai’i. Credit... University of Hawaii at Hilo

Dr. Dempsey and other researchers described the image to him two weeks ago, and she said she watched his face “just light up.” In a moment that she described as “astonishing” and “mind-bending,” he came up with one Hawaiian word for the black hole that took scientists six research papers to capture: pōwehi.

The word is derived from the Kumulipo, a centuries-old Hawaiian creation chant of 2,102 lines, and it means “the adorned fathomless dark creation.” It stems from “pō,” which means powerful, unfathomable and ceaseless creation, and “wehi,” an honorific befitting someone who would wear a crown, Professor Kimura said in an interview on Friday.

“Pōwehi as a name is so powerful because it provides real truths about the image of the black hole that we see,” Dr. Dempsey said in a video posted by the university.

Professor Kimura, who has been studying the chant for years, said the naming “all just fell into place.”