ID:192945
 Apr 22 2002, 6:23 pm
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I'm trying to figure out the meaning behind solar system names such as Alpha Centauri and Epsilon Eridani... Unfortunitally, everything I find on the search engines is either about the solar systems themselves, or some stupid fantasy games that I don't care about. Can anyone enlighten me on the actual meanings of solar system names such as those two?
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(Technically...ours is the only "Solar" system...because our star is named "Sol"... So the others would be "The Alpha Centauri System" or whatnot...lol) Only if you directly interpret "solar" to mean "from Sol". It's commonly accepted nowadays to refer to any star's confluence as a solar system. The proper term, of course, is a stellar system, but who's going to remember that? ;-) Anyways... They're just names given to those stars... Alpha and Epsilon are both Greek letters... Centauri and Eridani might be referring to some constellation they lie in... I'm not entirely sure if this is the case or not, though...but it seems to make sense... It's mostly a style preference of the person who first discovered it. Alpha Centauri is actually one star of a trinary -- another of the stars is Beta Centauri, but the third is Proxima Centauri. As is obvious, Proxima is definitely not a Greek letter; if I recall, it is Latin -- Proxima Centauri was discovered later, and was revealed to be a tiny bit closer to Earth. Regardless, all three stars are still typically referred to as Alpha Centauri, given that Alpha is the major domo of the trio. For another example, Wolf 359. That's not named after any letter of the alphabet -- Greek, Romantic, or otherwise -- and it's not named after a constellation either. | |
For another example, Wolf 359. That's not named after any letter of the alphabet -- Greek, Romantic, or otherwise -- and it's not named after a constellation either. But it was nevertheless the sight of a pivotal battle, where the federation made a desperate, futile stand against Locutus of Borg and the forces of the Collective, losing some 29 ships and thousands of lives. Or that's what my lifeless nerd friends tell me. | |
Hey you know what? I really like that. If ever I meet someone in the distant future from another solar system, I can say, "Hi! I come from Sol."
They should teach this crap in grade schools, what are kinds today to think? LJR | |
Spuzzum wrote:
It's mostly a style preference of the person who first discovered it. Alpha Centauri is actually one star of a trinary -- another of the stars is Beta Centauri - 2nd Guardian Proxima Centauri - Procimity Guardian Alpha Centauri - 1st Guardian Its been so long since Latin 101 in High school, I learned alot in that class, yet still flunked it! :P LJR | |
(Technically...ours is the only "Solar" system...because our star is named "Sol"... So the others would be "The Alpha Centauri System" or whatnot...lol)
Anyways... They're just names given to those stars... Alpha and Epsilon are both Greek letters... Centauri and Eridani might be referring to some constellation they lie in... I'm not entirely sure if this is the case or not, though...but it seems to make sense...
"Alpha Centauri" might be the first (Alpha == A) star in the Centauri group... And so on...
But again...I don't really know...