The name of the moon?

[peacekeeper]

I came to think of a question. Does our moon have any real name that's accepted in scientific circles? I mean, we can't keep on calling it "the moon" forever! Only in our own solar system there are hundreds of moons, and when colonies start popping up on even a few of those, a proper name for Earth's moon will really be neccesary in order to differentiate. When people in those colonies talk about "the moon", they will most probably be talking about their home, not some other moon orbiting some far away blue planet.

 

[najab]

The accepted name of Earth's moon is the Moon (note the capitalisation).<p>Given The Moon's large size in relation to the Earth, some people like to think of the Earth-Moon system as a double planet, in which case they refer to Terra and Luna, but this is not official.</p>

 

[peacekeeper]

Well, calling our planet Terra would be a bit unnecessary I think (even though I would love to call our species Terrans), because Earth is as good a name as any. To call the moon "the Moon", however, is kinda like calling a planet "the Planet", something which I see as a rather rude solution, and something which is bound to create confusion in the future. It would then be much better to officially adopt the name Luna for our moon.

 

[vogon13]

In its' own peer group it's refered to as 'Bob'. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[peacekeeper]

Bob!? Sounds more like the name of an asteroid to me.<br /><br />Seriously though, someone has to agree with me on this matter! Try renaming an ocean somewhere in the world to the Ocean, and a country to the Country, and you'll realize how confusing that would actually be. I tell you, we will face the same problem with the Moon within a century or two, so why not use some forsight and rename the Moon before the need becomes as critical as that?

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Well, calling our planet Terra would be a bit unnecessary I think (even though I would love to call our species Terrans), because Earth is as good a name as any.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Well, strictly speaking, if you look at the etymology of it "Earth" really means "the world". We live on a world called World! Terra does too, really. When the words first arose, there was no conception of this planet as a tiny place in a vast cosmos of other worlds. Earth was the world where mortals lived. Above it was Heaven, and below it was Hell. (There are many variations on this theme, but they do tend to regard Earth as basically the world accessible to humans and didn't even seriously consider the possiblity of people leaving it.) Earth also means dirt. The etymology is very tightly connected; the name of our planet means it is the material world. Planets like Mars and Jupiter were not believed to be worlds; they therefore could not have earth of their own. Some believed them to be gods, others just saw them as lanterns set in the sky. They were movable lanterns -- hence, "planets".<br /><br />It is very important to know that we don't call Earth "Planet" because at the time the words arose, planets were not known to be actual worlds. Planets were wandering stars, points of light that moved through the heavens. Even the Moon was not believed to be anything like Earth, even though you can *see* its features with the unaided eye; Galileo actually got in trouble with the Church for saying that he could see mountains on the Moon.<br /><br />So if you object to calling the Moon "Moon", you must also object to calling Earth "Earth". <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />Many astronomers do use the name "Luna", and of course it has different names in different languages. (Romance languages do use variations on "Luna", which is of course the Roman name for it.) The Greek name for it, Selene, also comes u <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[heyo]

I always thought it's proper name was indeed "Luna" but that nobody ever used that, since we only have one, so it's not like you have to know which one it is.<br /><br />Heyo<br /><br />

 

[teije]

Actually I think 'Moon' is in fact a name just like 'Luna' and 'Selene' only it's Germanic. So, to come back to Peacekeeper's question. It's the other way round. The moon was called Moon not because it's a moon but simply because that's the name they gave to this whitish disk that was in the heavens that dissappeared and reappeard 12 times per year. (See the word: 'month') By the time astronomers started realising first of all that it wasn't a whitish disk but a (slightly smaller) world orbiting our own, and, later on, that there were many such smaller worlds orbiting even other worlds. Someone decided to call all those worlds 'moons' as well. They stole the name from the Moon. <br />We therefore should stop calling the natural satellites of other planets 'moons' and reserve that name for the only true Moon. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />But besides 'Moon' 'Luna' and 'Selene' I suppose there are hundreds of other names in other languages around the world.<br /><br />Teije

 

[heyo]

True. And, interesting tidbit, which a lot of you may already know: In old times they used to think the moon, or "Luna" if you will, (espeicially a full moon) did wierd things to people and caused some people to act strangely and strange things to happen. This is the origin of the term "Lunatic"<br /><br />(correct me if I am wrong but I think that is true)<br /><br />Heyo

 

[thechemist]

You are right. The greek word for lunatic is also a derivative of "Selene". <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[nexium]

I sometimes refer to it as Earth's moon. That works. If you want a shorter name, Bob is as good as any, as the other possibilities suggested mean Earth's moon in a language other than English. Another possibility is to not use moon for the natural satellites of planets, other than Earth. Most of them do have a widely accepted name other than moon. Neil

 

[peacekeeper]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Well, strictly speaking, if you look at the etymology of it "Earth" really means "the world".<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />Of course. If you go far enough back in time, a great many names will have a meaning similair or identic to the word for the named object. But even though there may be many mountains out there with names that once meant "mountain", that meaning has been long lost. Today we see the name as simply a name, a way to differentiate between that mountain and any other mountain. "Earth" has in recent times come to mean "this very planet that is the home world of humanity". It is therefore very easy to know that when somone speaks of Earth, he is talking about Earth, and not some other planet. Because the word for planet is different than the name Earth. If he was talking about "the Moon" however, and was standing on the surface of Mars while doing so, talking to someone born on the red planet, that second person would most definitely think the first one was talking about either Phobos or Deimos.<br /><br />And I realize that Luna actually means "moon" in a few currently existing languages, so that choice of name might not be too good either. But I really think that we <i>should</i> considder renaming the moon, and I argue it would better be done sooner than later!<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>The Sun is known as 'the Sun'<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />While that is true in daily speach, the name Sol is equally accepted. It is also the name that I believe eventially will take over completely.

 

[astrophoto]

M-O-O-N, that spells Tom Cullen.<br /><br />Anyway, I think renaming the Moon, at least for scientists, is appropriate. One day far in the future it will be needed when speaking across worlds to other civilisations, be they off-shoots of our current society or entities encountered along the way.

 

[redwhitearcher]

Take into account that The Moon had different names in other languages and some of them don't use the term moon to describe other moons.<br />So renaming the Moon wouldn't very practical for several reasons. First I doubt it will catch on after thouthands of years it was called by that name why should we call it differently. Second why should languages that have other name for the Moon should change them too?<br />As for your point that there are many things in history with similar root to their names:<br />Please give examples because I can't think of any off hand. I'm sure there is several and if you will look into it you will see that they still mean the same but sound different to other people and they accept it by this name.<br />The Moon is the same story. The Moon is the name. Other moons got the name only because they are satellite just like our Moon. It very logical. Why should we change the name of original artifacts because its now used as a term?

 

[rogers_buck]

As soon as some big corporation gets around to buing into it, it will be known as something like "Coca Cola Moon" and will be stained to show a giant coke logo in the sky.<br /><br />Personally, I hope FedEx buys the rights, that would be natural since the moon is covered in craters.<br />

 

[silylene old]

And the Hindu word for the Moon is "Chandra", as I am sure many of you knew but forgot.<br /><br />Also, each full moon has a compound name in American pioneer folklore, and yet different names in various Native American folklores.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[claywoman]

I personally refer to the moon as George and the earth as Gracie....or possibly Simon and garfunkel? <br /><br />"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet".....