Friday, August 31, 2012

Is It Time to Rename the Moon?

Here is something that always kinda puzzled me. According to a small article in Boing Boing:

  • Jack Pate says: "'The Moon' is a stupid name for our moon. As a species, we should all come together and come up with something even marginally more creative. The planet Jupiter has 63 moons. None of them is named 'Moon.' This has got to be the biggest astronomical gaffe in the Universe."
I know it is a name out of antiquity, but in today's "enlightened" time when we know that other astral bodies have moons that is comes of a bit odd that the Earth is the only body in the solar system that HAS a generic name for it's own satellite.

Anyone?

6 comments:

kallamis said...

Okay, the moon has been just the moon forever. Unlike my defense of my little PLANET, this time I agree.

I vote for the name Luna. It's simple, descriptive, scientific and spiritual all at the same time.

And while we're at it, lets get this planets name changed to Terra. Seriously. Or even Sol 3. They just sound better than Earth.

Beam Me Up said...

Kall, isn't Luna just Moon in another language? I would do Gia for Earth now bare with me but Achlys for the moon. It's appropriate yes?

Unknown said...

The same goes for "The Sun." Sol is much better.

Beam Me Up said...

Again, Sol is just another culture that means "Sun" but you know Erik, I am inclined to agree here just because I find myself when I am writing an article to call the star Sol instead of Sun but consider this....science fiction....Star Trek, Roman god? Roman god of fire? Vulcan? Come on! It works!

Beam Me Up said...

Oh, I didn't say Hi Erik. Thanks for the input! Glad to have you aboard.


Paul

kallamis said...

Yeah, Luna is basically another word for moon. But then, Paul is the name given to a man to seperate him from others. That's really all a name is, so you know who is who, what is what, and where the smeg you are lost at.
And yeah, those names would also be appropriate for moon and earth as well.
And as for you people that have the SOL problem, I'm with oyu. What changed me was these towns around here. You mentuion the name SOL, and these people will actually argue with you. That it is the sun, period.
Don't I live in a wonderfully advanced progressive area here. And people wonder why I want the smeg off this planet.