All other moons and suns as we know of have names... except ours! Ok, we have Luna meaning moon, and Helius meaning sun... but those aren't names. Anyone know why we didn't name ours?
2006-07-05 07:24:47 · 18 answers · asked by M 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Take moon, for example. Moon is a general term for a large rock that revolves around a planet. We say that Io and Titan are two of Saturn's 'moons'. But ours has no name! It's just moon!
2006-07-05 07:31:02 · update #1
"The International Astronomical Union (IAU) decides on names for things in the Solar System, such as planets, asteroids, and moons. I asked Dr. Aksnes, the chairman of the group that decides on names for planetary systems and what's in them, this question. It turns out that the IAU has not decided on a single name for the Sun (or the Moon for that matter), but supports the common practice of using the name of the Sun (or the Moon) in any language. Without capitalization, the word "sun" can be interpreted as any other star and the word "moon" as any other moon."
2006-07-05 07:34:05 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 19⤊ 2⤋
Because we have only one of each. If I say, "Look at the Moon" or "When does the Sun set?", you know exactly what I mean. But if I say, "Look at the star" or "When is the planet visible", you would ask, "Which one?" to which I might answer, "Vega" or "Mars". Those things need names to tell them apart, the Sun and Moon don't. Yes, we know of other suns and moons in space now, but the language of referring to THE Moon or THE Sun predates space flight by thousands of years.
2006-07-05 14:55:28 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sol = Sun, Luna = Moon. Next?
2006-07-05 14:34:05 · answer #3 · answered by martin b 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
THE moon, THE sun, THE earth. Luna, Sol, Terra. All languages have names for them.
2006-07-05 14:40:14 · answer #4 · answered by kanajlo 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course they do. The first name of both is "the". We need to name all other suns and moons to distinguish them from our own in much the same way as we talk about the president or the queen implying the one in our own country and need to name the rest from other countries.
2006-07-05 14:30:59 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They do have names. Sun and Moon are their names.
2006-07-05 14:55:45 · answer #6 · answered by akanksha singh 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've always believed that they had names...
Luna for Moon and Sol for Sun...
Interesting to find out if I'm mistaken...
2006-07-05 14:33:16 · answer #7 · answered by elc7545 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know about the sun bout our moon's name is actually luna.
2006-07-05 18:06:51 · answer #8 · answered by RuneWitchSakura1988 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are names what names do you expect?
They do it's Solar (Sol) for sun, Terran (Terra) for Earth and Lunar (Luna) for moon or Chemene for moon and Helios for sun, Earth for Earth. The founders of them named them after there religion.
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2006-07-06 11:20:32 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sun is a name and so is Moon. If they didn't have names, we would be calling them yellow ball and white ball.
2006-07-05 14:30:04 · answer #10 · answered by YOUR MOTHER 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋