How the Moon Got Its Name

Almost every major planet in our solar system and their respective orbiting moons have figure taken directly from Grecian and Roman mythology . For model , Mars is named for the Greek and Roman god of War , also have a go at it as ar , while its moons , Deimos and Phobos are named for his sons . as well , Jupiter is named after Zeus while quite a few of its moons are named after certain of his sexual conquests . This tradition is for the most part dead on target for every planet in our solar system with the remarkable exception of the moons of Uranus which are named after characters from theplays of Shakespeare .

The only other elision to this name convention are the decidedly generic go names of the Earth and Moon . Since we’vealready explainedhow the Earth fall to be known as such , that just leaves us with why our largest satellite does n’t have a more colorful name like the moons of the other planets in our solar system .

As it turns out , the Moon did have other names , notable among them , and in keep with the naming schema of other local celestial bodies , was one take from the name of an ancient and powerful deity- Luna , the Roman Goddess of the Moon .

Dji Drone

Romance in origin , the word of honor “ Luna ” is still very much colligate with the Moon ( as is “ Selene ” , to a lesser extent , the Greek Moon goddess ) . For instance , “ Luna ” is observe as being the root of words like “ lunar ” . However , “ Luna ” as a name for the Moon is stillpre - datedby early derivatives of theword moon .

In any event , when humans discovered there were other planet out there , we still were n’t sure that these planets had their own moons until four of Jupiter ’s satellites were directly observed by Galileo Galilei in 1610 .

When humanity first learn of other moons orbiting the planet in our solar system , one of the main reasons they were give name was to tell them from the Moon , which , according to theInternational Astronomical Union(IAU ) , the entity tax with bring up every celestial body in the night sky , is still the official name of our moon in English .

Ms 0527 Jessica Jones Daredevil Born Again

What ’s more , the naming of the Moon was one of the first things the IAU did when it was formed in 1919 , because to cite them , they wanted : “ to standardise the multiple , perplexing system of nomenclature for the Moon that were then in usage . ”

In regards to why the IAU settled on “ Moon ” instead of one of the more flamboyant names that existed , they say that since the Moon was the first known lunar month , and popularly call in something like that for millennia in many languages , it was well-to-do to simply make it official than introduce a newfangled name , since their original goal was to make things well-to-do for hoi polloi to understand , not concentrated .

And , of course , “ Moon ” is really a somewhat cool name , only made less interesting by the fact that we ’ve applied it as a generic name for the born , prominent satellites of other planets . Had we not done that , “ Moon ” would have seemed every moment as decided of a name as “ Pluto ” , which incidentallywas not make after the Disney eccentric , as many have paint a picture . Although it was named by an 11 twelvemonth older girl , helping to give ramification to the myth about the Disney origination .

Amazon Arzopa

This brings us to the line of the name of Earth ’s favourite orbiter , “ Moon ” . The word “ moon ” can be trace back to Old English , where it is say to have derived from the Proto - Germanic word “ menon ” , which in play derived from the Proto - Indo - European “ * menstruum ” , intend “ month , lunar month ” . This highlights how far back the association between the Moon and the passage of time goes .

If you liked this article , you might also enjoy :

Why the Same Side of the Moon Always Faces the Earth

Sonos Speaker Move 2

The First to Pee on the Moon and Other Interesting Moon Firsts

That Time the United States Planned on Nuking the Moon

The Real Reason the Moon Looks big on the Horizon

Apple2025macbookairm4

What the Moon smell out Like

Bonus Facts :

With few exceptions , the Moon has long been associated with women , natality and a whole master of ceremonies of other normally ascribed “ female ” attributes . Why ? In most case , menstrual cycles more or less coincide with the phases of the Moon . It should then arrive as no surprise that across many speech , the wrangle for “ moon ” , “ calendar month ” , and the name for a woman ’s catamenial cycle often has the same solution Scripture . For instance , the English word “ flow ” ( Websters : “ the flow of rakehell that comes from a adult female ’s body each calendar month ” ) pour down up in the late 16th 100 deriving from the Latin “ menses ” meaning “ calendar month ” .

Second Screen Portable 15 Monitor

The IAU is the only recognised organization on Earth that has the powerfulness to name a ethereal consistency and they ’ve specifically go on disk as saying that any service offering to deal you the rights to name a hotshot or any other target in the celestial sky is a scam .

The IAU has for the most part maintained the tradition of appointment objects in our Solar System after figures from ancient myth and fable , both for consistency and as a homage to the pioneer of their professing . However , for the sake of simplicity and to make communication between expert from different lingual backgrounds easy , objects outside of our solar system are ordinarily hand numeric designations .

Karl Smallwoodwrites for the wildly popular interesting fact websiteTodayIFoundOut.com . To sign to Today I find Out ’s “ Daily Knowledge ” newssheet , snap hereor like them on Facebookhere .

Hp 17 Touchscreen Laptop