Earth and Moon
by Rob - December 11th, 2007.Filed under: Uncategorized.
A reader wrote to me today, “Earth and Moon should always be capitalized; and if your line editors are sloppy, then tell them so!” (In Mindscan, much of which does take place on Earth’s natural satellite, I made a conscious choice not to capitalize “moon.”)
My response:
On the capitalization of Earth, Moon, etc., we’ll have to have a discussion. I agree on Earth, as it is the commonly accepted proper name of our planet in English and there are no other “Earths.”* But note that Analog magazine (and analogy!) can take this to ridiculous lengths: Analog‘s style guide is to capitalize: Earth, Moon, Sun, Galaxy (when referring to our own), and even Universe.
Actually, one could argue that there are no other proven universes, and so capitulate to Analog‘s arcane point about capitalizing it, but there are lots of other moons, galaxies, and suns, and so I might argue that all of these phrases are correct:
Earth
Earth’s moon
Earth’s moon Luna
Luna, Earth’s moon
Earth
Earth’s sun
Earth’s sun Sol
Sol, Earth’s sun
Earth
Earth’s galaxy
Earth’s galaxy, the Milky Way
The Milky Way, Earth’s galaxy
Earth
Earth’s universe
Earth’s universe Fred
Fred, the universe containing Earth
Still, by analogy:
My house is in the valley.
Which valley?
The San Fernando Valley.
(Yes, lots of people would capitalize “valley” in the first sentence — but lots of others wouldn’t.)
There’s also the question of whether “solar system” refers generically to any system of stars and planets, or specifically to our own, since “solar” is derived from the proper name of our sun (as used in SF contexts, anyway).
But, to me, “Solar system” and “Solar System,” look wrong, although I’ll accede to “Sol system” (since we never say “Alpha Centaurian system” but always “Alpha Centauri system”); in general, I prefer “solar system,” and consider the argument that the term should only be used to refer to our own (a) pedantic, and (b) to fly in the face of already well-established common usage.
* I said there were no other Earths, but, in fact, in discussions of exoplanets — those outside our solar system — we do routinely refer to “hot Jupiters” and “other Earths,” but that’s a very specialized and quite recent usage, and shouldn’t dictate how we generally refer to our planet, although it’s interesting that the long-in-common-use term “the Earth” — meaning the Earth, our Earth — might need to be retained, instead of the definite article falling by the wayside as such things often do over time …
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