The science community remembers who reached each star first

The Xalaria universe is our own universe's wormhole network: 7,804 stars, of some 2 × 10²³. The first traveller to come through a wormhole to a star charts it, and that name remains fact throughout Xalaria's space-time continuum.

There is no other way to chart a star than to travel there. Journeys begin among the thirty stars of the starting region and follow the wormholes outward; the further a star lies, the longer it waits.