Sunday, April 15, 2012

Solar System or star system?

It looks like the media is determined to make the name of our star, Sol, as generic as they did the name of our natural satellite, Moon.

Moon is now used as the generic term for natural satellite all the time. Example: the moons of Saturn. Moon was originally the name of Earth's natural satellite in one language. Now it must be referred to as the moon or our moon for it to be understood that it is Earth's satellite that we are talking about.

Luna, a name for Earth's satellite in another language, has become the proper name of our satellite.

Now the media keep calling other planetary systems, solar systems. There is only one Solar System, it is the one we live in. The name of our star is Sol. Generically, it is a planetary system. Specifically, it is the Solar System.

If there are planets orbiting Betelgeuse it would not be the solar system of Betelgeuse, it would be the Betelgeuse System, which would be a planetary system.

I have noticed that it is not just the media doing this. There are other guilty parties, also. Some book writers, fiction and non-fiction, have done it. I think I have heard some of the scientists that should know better doing it, also.

Here is an example of what I am talking about:

Nine planet solar system found, with room to grow

The correct title of that article should be “Nine planet planetary system found, with room to grow.”

Feel free to comment on this, or anything else in this blog.

No comments:

Post a Comment