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leojg t1_j0va4za wrote

Personally I don't understad the need to switch the name depending on the planet. I mean an earthquake is the earth as in the ground moving.

The same goes for calling astronauts different things in different conuntries.

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jackinsomniac t1_j0vlvee wrote

100%. This is actually a pretty bad issue with space terminology. E.g. When talking about your highest altitude and lowest altitude for an orbit, for earth it's apogee or perigee. But the -"gee" suffix is specific to Earth, Gaia. So if you start orbiting the Moon, these same terms change to apolune or perilune, to reference the Moon's name, Luna. And should change based on the name of whatever planet is being orbited.

KSP has done a great job making the more agnostic terms, apoapsis vs. periapsis, more commonplace. And I wish more people picked up on it. It's embarrassing to watch supposedly knowledgeable people try to describe the orbit of a Mars satellite using "apogee" and "perigee".

Edit: just to make clear how simple it could be, and how confusing it actually is:

There's only 2 prefixes:

  • apo- (highest)
  • peri- (lowest)

But the suffix is supposed to change based on the name of the body being orbited. When instead, there's a suffix that's agnostic to the body's name: -apsis. Which could be used for any orbit of any body. Even if it still has a stupid scientific name, like TRAPPIST-7

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Senrakdaemon t1_j0ve3fa wrote

As you said, it's because normally it's called an Earth-quake. Which is technically referring to the physical ground/dirt (or sometimes Earth in some cases). It's realistically a little clever way to both differentiate the planet its on and still refer to it as a "quake" in some way. Others also find it funny to name it like that. Idrc, I think they sound a little funky but that's because we call them earthquakes, since we're on earth and it's shaking.

As for why astronauts are referred differently? It's because they're a different culture and sometimes language, not everyone uses all western names/naming scheme. I'll agree I think they should all have one name. It probably came about during the space race and since it was a competition, people wanted their creation to be referenced.

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leojg t1_j0vei12 wrote

I actually think cosmonaut is a better term. Because it means navigator of the cosmos, an astronaut navigates a star.

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TantricEmu t1_j0wrs7l wrote

Astronaut and cosmonaut is cool but my vote is for space guy/gal, or gender neutral space jawn.

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