Why do we call the star in our solar system "The Sun" when all other celestial bodies are addressed simply as Jupiter, Neptune, or Sagittarius A Star?
Ex: The Saturn has many rings. Incorrect
Ex: The Sun has many layers. Correct?
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Sometimes that's just the way it is. "Sun" and "moon" can be either proper or common nouns, and, to simplify life, they're usually treated in construction as common nouns. – Hot Licks Jan 28 '15 at 17:11
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Jupiter, Neptune, Sagittarius A Star, etc. are all names, but "sun" isn't. There are other suns in other solar systems, just as there are other moons (which is why we also say "the moon" instead of just "moon"). When we talk about the sun or the moon, we're referring to a specific sun or moon, so that's why we use the definite article.
Nicole
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But our Sun is a star, like stars in many other galaxies; whereas our Moon is a moon. Is a star that is part of a solar system called a "sun"? – Christian Jan 28 '15 at 16:08
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I found it. "There is only one sun in OUR solar system (trust me, you would have heard about it if there were more!), but there are billions of stars in the Universe, and many of them are "suns" for other planetary systems. As we discover more extra-solar planets, we discover more "suns" "
- http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_sun.html#more
So the term sun describes a star with planets orbiting it. Thank you for your guidance.
– Christian Jan 28 '15 at 16:30 -
@Christian: I'm not sure we currently have any definitive way of establishing that any given star doesn't have planets. The more closely we look, the more exoplanets we discover, and it seems to me quite possible that [almost] all stars have planets. Certainly not everyone would reserve "sun" for stars with known planets. – FumbleFingers Jan 28 '15 at 16:52
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Keep in mind that other languages with articles may to this differently than English. We will fail if we try to argue that the English way is the logical one. – GEdgar Jan 28 '15 at 17:32
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Because the sun and the moon were easily seen as singular and important things back when languages were developing. The sun is what separates night from day and thus critical to most societies daily and annual (thinks seasons and farming) patterns of behaviour. The moon likewise for some varying degrees of illumination at night. It took until the Hellenic period (IIRC) before the planets were identified - the name means "wanderers" - as distinct from stars which were seem as pretty much fixed in place in the sky.
Wudang
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