[qoute]you know what's always pissed me off? our moon doesn't have a name! it's just called the moon. wtf?!?! that's like finding a new planet and calling it "planet." and don't give me that "well it's called Luna" crap because Luna is just latin for moon. our moon needs a totally badass name. i mean come on, uranus has a moon called SYCORAX. it's from shakespeare, as are most uranus' moon names, but come on that's awesome. that moon is the type of guy who breaks into your house and watches all your dvds and eats all your pringles and when you come downstairs you're like "wtf dude" and he's just like "hey baby, this is how i roll" and then he starts making out with your girlfriend before he sets your house on fire and steals your car. now THAT'S a moon.-raffleking82[/qoute] I found this in somebody's signature, so I decided to kinda reply to it. Other then the fact of his hilarious ranting, he technically is wrong. Moons are not technically moons, they are satellites, or a small body of solid mass that orbits a planet. So our moon is named.
And aren't tons of other star/planet/satellite names based off of Greek, Latin and Arabic words? Luna is the name of the Earth's moon just as Gaea is the "name" of the Earth and Sol is the "name" of our sun.
Luna isn't technically meant to translate to an improper noun but rather a proper noun. Luna is the Roman moon goddess, the same deity called Selene by the Greeks. The Moon has many names around the world, but in English vernacular 'Luna' is as close as it comes. Thus the term LUNAr, as in Lunar landing or Lunar eclipse.
[QUOTE="ForgottenOath"] I found this in somebody's signature, so I decided to kinda reply to it. Other then the fact of his hilarious ranting, he technically is wrong. Moons are not technically moons, they are satellites, or a small body of solid mass that orbits a planet. So our moon is named. You're technically wrong. A satellite is anything that orbits a larger body: The Earth is one of the suns satellites. A moon is a body large enough to coalesce under it's own gravity and that orbits a larger body that isn't a star or stellar remnant. Some asteroids have moons.
Our moon is a satellite, just like the earth. The Earth orbits the sun, which is a larger body. The, not dictated by its own gravity orbits Earth, making yet another satellite in a system of strange understanding. In the English language Luna is not the name of the moon. The greeks referred to the moon as the goddess Luna. So if you are English Luna = Moon. Also we call the satellites that orbit planets moons, just to make it easier to classify what is what. In any college level astronomy class, if you answer the name of Jupiter moons are........, you will get the answer wrong. Even if it is Earths moon, they want you to refer to them as satellites.
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