Monday 16 August 2010

the sun - Is a planetary system star's referred to as their sun?

The technical name (in English) for the Sun is not Sol, which is just Latin for sun. The technical name for the Sun is the Sun. Another body in the sky has a similarly boring name, the Moon. There's one more boringly named object: in the Solar System: The Earth. Note the use of "the" (a definite article) and the use of capitalization to indicate a specific object.



The problem with Sun, Moon, and Earth is that we have been using these names (or their predecessors) for thousands of years. For example, sun, sol, ἥλιος (helios), and a bunch of other names for that very bright object in the sky whose presence distinguishes day from night all derive from the same proto-Indo-European word sóh₂wl̥.



As an end note, from http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/159-our-solar-system/the-sun/the-solar-system/4-what-are-the-names-of-the-earth-moon-sun-and-solar-system-beginner,




You may read or hear people using Luna for the Moon, or Terra or Gaia for the Earth, or Sol for the Sun, but in English-speaking countries, these are poetic terms, often seen in science fiction stories, but not used by astronomers in scientific writing. In some countries where Romance languages are spoken, these terms are the official names.



It's also interesting to note that most astronomers do not call our galaxy the Milky Way in technical writing--they call it the Galaxy.


No comments:

Post a Comment