As far as I knew, the name of the sun was Sol, and the moon was Luna. Are these correct? Are these accepted names in scientific circles, in the same way that “Earth”, Mercury" and “Neptune” are? If so, why do people never refer to them by their names? Its a big galaxy, with a freakin’ lot of suns and moons. We call all the other extraterrestrial bodies by their proper names, why not these two?
For one thing, there is no ambiguity when you refer to the Sun and the Moon (in caps). Everyone knows what you’re talking about. We only have one sun and one moon. When you refer to a planet, there are many planets, so a name would be useful. Ditto for other stars, asteroids, meteors, planetoids, moons of other planets, you name it.
No, the accepted scientific names are . . . the Sun and the Moon.
No, it has a lot of stars and a lot of satellites. Referring to all stars as suns and all satellites as moons is geocentric slang.
Have a look at the moons of our solar system:
But I would have to agree that it looks a bit silly being the only moon in that huge list with no proper name. For some reason, I find it difficult to accept “Moon” as its name. I’d feel better if it had a last name, too. How about “Zappa”?
Of course, the other astronomical object with a non-distinctive name is – the Earth.
I suppose we call them “Sun” and “Moon” for the same reason I call my parents “Mom” and “Dad”. Sure, my parents have names, but I don’t need to use those names in order for the rest of my family to know which Mom and Dad I’m talking about.
Under normal contexts, the English terms capitalized are clear names. However, as CynicalGabe notes in the OP, the longstanding tradition has been that the proper names are Sol and Luna, the Latin terms meaning sun and moon respectively.
This comes in useful if you are discussing conditions on an extrasolar planet: “Its sun, 51 Ophiuchi, is a full three degrees across, six times the diameter and 36 times the apparent area of Sol as seen from Earth. At its distance, Sol itself is a measly third-magnitude star.” (Information here is purely arbitrary and hypothetical, for example’s sake.)
I thought Earth’s name was Terra.
The International Astronomical Union, the international body recognised by astronomers as the final authority on nomenclature, seems to recommend just using the Sun and the Moon as their correct names in English.
“Earth” is used by the IAU on the page cited by bonzer.
Yes, the Terran system lies in Sector 001. We all know this.
I just hope the Borg don’t break through the Mars Defense Perimeter.
I hate it when that happens. Totally ruins my weekend plans.
Frank and Vanessa
No, the words Sol, Luna, and Terra in reference to the Sun, Moon, and Earth are just obnoxious misuses of Latin, and they may be used to identify awful science fiction novels, as well as people who’ve been unduly influenced by awful science fiction novels.
Besides, what would “proper” names be in this context anyway? It doesn’t even make sense - there’s no standards body that anyone (except perhaps within a profession) would adhere to that assigns names to such things. Obviously within astronomical circles such an organization exists, but it doesn’t follow that that organization can or should set the standard for anyone else speaking English. (I also don’t know how seriously they’re taken - listen to a chemist talking sometime, and see if they use the systematic names for compounds. Most of the time, they won’t.) Course, it’s moot, since the standards group in question apparently decided that the actual terms used in English ought to be the terms used in English. Oddly sensible, actually, for a group in charge of standards.
It just doesn’t make sense to talk about the “proper” names of things like that. There’s not some sort of magical true name carved by God in the surface of the moon, so the name in English is whatever word English speakers use in reference to it. That the definite article is used in reference to them reflects the fact that each one was conceived of as unique when the names developed. In the case of the planets and stars, others of their kind were known but not recognized as the same. In the case of the moon, folks didn’t even realize other moons existed, which is probably why the name was generalized to other moons.
Is this supposed to be some sort of a stab at me? :dubious:
No, not at all.
It’s a stab at bad science fiction writing. I’ve seen far too much of it in my time.
There’s a perfectly good reason those terms show up in science fiction. If humans ever colonize a planet orbiting tau Ceti, the colonists won’t talk about how “I saw a great tau Ceti-set last evening”. They’ll talk about how “I saw a great sunset last evening”. “Sun” is the word inhabitants of any planet would use for the star that gives them light, so it doesn’t make sense for them to also use the same word for the particular star that gives light to humanity’s homeworld. A stargazer on a planet orbiting tau Ceti can’t look up at the night sky and ask “Which of those stars is the Sun?”, since the answer to that one would be “The sun isn’t up right now, silly, it’s night”. So the stargazer has to give it some other name, and ask “Which of those stars is Sol?”.
Similarly for the planet, to a lesser degree: “Earth” is soil or dirt, the stuff beneath your feet, even if that stuff is part of a completely different planet. “Luna” for the Moon might be less necessary, since most planets have many moons (which would of course need separate names, and could not any of them be called just “the moon”) or no moon, but I wouldn’t be surprised, if humans happen to colonize some other planet with a single prominent natural satellite, if that body were referred to as “the moon” by the colonists. But even if a Latin name for Earth’s satellite isn’t necessary, once one is giving names to Sol and Terra, it’s a reasonable step to do the same for Luna.
Of course, these names are all kinda Anglocentric. The word for sun in Swedish and Spanish is Sol. The French say Soleil.
Earth works well when speaking English, but it lacks the international quality Jupiter, Mars or Pluto have. When I was in middle school, we were taught that the proper name for Earth is Tellus, which is a variant of Terra. Works fine for me.
They are the English names. I don’t think they are world standard names, except in the sense that English is the standard language of many academic journals and organizations.
You’re being sorta Eurocentric here, actually - none of these names are universal, it’s just that they happen to be common to many European languages. They don’t exist in Chinese (Mars is “fire-star”, or some such. Each of the five visible planets corresponds to an element in Chinese alchemy.) I bet there’s a lot of other languages besides Chinese that don’t use “Venus” or “Jupiter” to refer to the planets.