General Question Why is Luna called "Moon" in-Game?

[Swigert]

I've been wondering this for so long now...All of Saturn's moons have their correct scientific names, but why doesn't Luna (Earth's moon). It's name isn't "Moon" obviously; of or relating to "the moon" isn't "moonar" (bad KSP reference), but it's "Lunar"...Because our moon is "Luna".

This is kind of more of a suggestion, but also a question. I was just wondering.

 

[Quick_Nick]

"The Moon" *is* the proper English name for it. Luna would just be a translation really; exact same word. I've never heard informal or English-specific names for Saturn's moons before.

 

[Swigert]

Ah, I had thought that Luna was the scientific name for it. :facepalm:

 

[Quick_Nick]

Ah, I had thought that Luna was the scientific name for it. :facepalm:

I do like to call it that when speaking scientifically especially. In English, it removes the ambiguity of having one word refer to two related things. But that convenience disappears in other languages where luna is also ambiguous. Like in Spanish: "las lunas de Saturno" vs "la luna". And it's my understanding that in Spanish, 'luna' isn't even capitalized (except in scientific texts according to Google) when referring to Earth's moon.
Some of the same applies to Sol and Sun. But neither of those refers to any star but our own. Apparently humans were quick to relate satellites of other planets to our moon, but didn't think those thousands of dots in the sky could be anything like our big yellow ball.

 

[clive bradbury]

Ah, I had thought that Luna was the scientific name for it. :facepalm:

It is. Technically 'Luna' is the name of Earth's moon.

 

[garyw]

It is. Technically 'Luna' is the name of Earth's moon.

Just like Terra is the real name for Earth.

Both Terra and Luna are the Latin terms for Earth and moon.

 

[STS]

And in Spanish, Luna is always capitalized, the same as Tierra, but not for "las lunas de Saturno" or "Io, una luna de Júpiter".

 

[Goth]

"Moon" was always used for our satellite.
Then, discovering other satellites we called them with the same term, e.g. "Saturn's moon", but using the term as a noun (not-capitalized), and not as a proper noun (capitalized).
But the original term "Moon" is "sticked" to our satellite which is indeed its official name.

 

[C3PO]

Selene?

 

[Goth]

Selene?

Sure. Just ask Martin to change the name to this one.

 

[Andy44]

There is nothing "scientific" about any of these names. Planets and satellites are name after myths and gods for romantic reasons.

A "scientific" name for Luna would be something like Celestial Body 1.3.1 (Sol, Sol's 3rd satellite, earth's 1st satellite). Basically just turn everything into numbers and remove all sentiment and fun from it.

I was really hoping they'd let Xena and Gabrielle keep those names...oh well.

 

[Artlav]

Interestingly, in russian the two words are distinct.
The Moon is Luna, and a moon is sputnik.

So, it varies from place to place.

 

[jedidia]

Apparently humans were quick to relate satellites of other planets to our moon, but didn't think those thousands of dots in the sky could be anything like our big yellow ball.

That's mostly because the satelites of other bodies became observable after we figured out the relation of the moon to the earth. They saw that the behavior was the same, and therefore these bodies were called the "moons of Jupiter", as in "bodies that are to Jupiter what the Moon is to the Earth, therefore his moons".

There's also the little complication that "Moon" and "Month" are identical words in many languages, what with one clearly being derived from the other...

The sun and the stars, on the other hand, were both observable for as long as there was anyone to observe them,and since the nature of either was completely unknown, it is only natural that every single culture had two different terms for them. For that matter, it took a sweet while until the distinction between stars and planets was made, and that too was only a descriptor of their behavior, not their nature: Planetes means "wanderers", so in the beginning they simply noticed that there were stars that move, and stars that don't, and gave the ones that moved another name, still thinking they were essentially the same, just that the majority was damn lazy.

 

[Linguofreak]

It is. Technically 'Luna' is the name of Earth's moon.

I've seen it used quite often (quite possibly more than "the Moon" or "Earth's Moon") in science-fiction, but never in actual English-language scientific texts regarding the moon. The official scientific name for the Moon is "the Moon".

A search of arXiv.org for papers with "the Moon" in their title reveals 91 papers, pretty much all of which are about Earth's moon (I saw one with a title where "the moon" matched because a substring of "the moons", that paper was about the moons of other planets).

A search of arXiv.org for papers with "Luna" in their title reveals only 14 papers. Some of these are about a particle physics experiment called "LUNA", one is about an algorithm called "LUNA" that's supposed to be of help in detecting moons of extrasolar planets detected by the transit method, and in the rest "Luna" is a misspelling of "lunar" (so the papers actually do deal with Earth's moon, but have incorrect titles).

 

[Quick_Nick]

Interestingly, in russian the two words are distinct.
The Moon is Luna, and a moon is sputnik.

So, it varies from place to place.

Sputnik is like "satellite", right? So did Russia avoid the ambiguity between Moon and moons, while running into the ambiguity of natural satellites (moons) and artificial satellites?

 

[Matias Saibene]

To avoid ambiguity I use the following (in Spanish):

Moon (Luna in Spanish) = natural satellite of Earth

natural satellite = object or celestial body that orbits a planet

Greetings

 

[paddy2]

Surely this is much more to do with the English usage of "a moon" and "the Moon".

In English an army could be from anywhere, the Army is british. It is not the British Army, its just the Army. as in thee Army not the army. I am in no way having a go at the USA here but what is the RAF and what is the USAF ( or RAAF ). Same as Royal Navy, no need to qualifiy from where it hails.

We have Solar power but only on a SUNny day. SUNar or Moonar just sound wrong, it has to be solar and lunar. I would say its more to do with popular usage then with science.

 

[orb]

We have Solar power but only on a SUNny day.

There is also a solar day, but it's something completely different from a sunny day.

 

[paddy2]

There is also a solar day

this that just a better sound then a Sunar day!

So as not to come even a bit close to a flame war, I am bowing out of adding to this thread but will still read with interest

 

[agentgonzo]

Oddly, the adjective for Saturn (ie, relating to Saturn) can either be 'Saturnian' (obvious) or 'Cronian' (derived from Cronus - the Greek version of Saturn).