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felixrocket7835 t1_iy04mix wrote

This is objectively incorrect, the Sun is the name for OUR star, there are not multiple suns.

"The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System."

"The star round which the earth orbits."

Couple of definitions

"Sun" isn't a label for a type of star or a different name for a star, it's just a name for the star we orbit, people often get confused as we call our moon, the moon, and other natural satellites, moons, some articles will say suns instead of stars to not confuse those with rather bad astronomy knowledge.

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SyncMeASong t1_iy21mfz wrote

Merriam-Webster has entered the chat

sun b: a celestial body like the sun : STAR

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ParticleDetector OP t1_iy271pr wrote

It’s like that as well on the Oxford Dictionary and the Collin’s dictionary but I’m still getting downvoted for mentioning that it’s also like that in popular fiction :(

Apparently the sun as a common noun is not…accepted by everyone?

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Criticalhit_jk t1_iy2vjcn wrote

It probably wouldn't take me very long to find someone who unironically doesn't believe in the sun in this day and age, so don't take it too hard if someone disagrees with your verbiage regarding it

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ParticleDetector OP t1_iy2y8w0 wrote

Omg you made me go google ‘the sun is fake’ and ‘flat earthers don’t believe in sun’ and other stuff lol.

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ChainSword20000 t1_iy0yatl wrote

Sol is the name. Sun is its role. The earths sun, tatooines sun, etc. Its the SOLar system.

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iamblankenstein t1_iy1hy64 wrote

"sol" is the latin word for "the sun". sun and sol are often used interchangeably, but both are just names for the star in our local solar system, not a "role" it's playing.

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AxialGem t1_iy0wqlc wrote

If you're big into dictionary definitions, wiktionary has the following:

"A star, especially when seen as the centre of any single solar system"

And OED lists: "any star around which planets move"

The thing is, the usage of a word determines its meaning, not any one definition. And the word sun is in fact habitually used to mean 'star,' just read or listen to works of sci-fi I guess. If you pretend it's not, you're simply not capturing the full meaning.

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alfology2 t1_iy2smue wrote

How do you know what the other stars are called? Have you been there?

−1

Th3Banzaii t1_iy2ye7h wrote

We named them. We only used the most unimaginative names for our stuff, Sun, Moon and Earth.

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alfology2 t1_iy324tk wrote

We’ve not named all the stars. Might be another one out there called sun

−2

mfb- t1_iy3kede wrote

We won't name another star "sun" or its equivalent in other languages, that would just be confusing for no reason.

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alfology2 t1_iy3nuyb wrote

The universe is infinite innit. Also who says we have to name it for it to be called the sun

−1

ParticleDetector OP t1_iy0n9i8 wrote

Popular media has made it such that some people do call other stars ‘sun’ though.

e.g

Krypton’s red sun

tattoine’s twins suns

Romulan sun

Etcetc

So much so that I think many people would imagine standing on an alien planet, looking up at their version of the star the planet is orbiting, and casually say ‘damn the sun is sure hot today’.

Edit : I’m not saying people are calling every star as ‘suns’ interchangeably, I’m saying people call the star a planet is orbiting as the ‘sun’ of that planet.

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Artsy_traveller_82 t1_iy2llvx wrote

Our Sun is called Sol by the way. That’s why it’s called the Solar System.

−6

The_camperdave t1_iy2mh59 wrote

> Our Sun is called Sol by the way. That’s why it’s called the Solar System.

Yeah, and Earth is called Terra. Two names for the same object.

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KmartQuality t1_iy0uzll wrote

Whatever planet you ate orbiting is "the sun".

If you find yourself in interstellar space or around another star you could refer to the sun as "my sun/star" or "our sun/star".

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felixrocket7835 t1_iy0wk2c wrote

I have never heard that definition in my life, well, except on WalesOnline.. hardly a good source.

The Sun is the name of our star, the reason people use sun for stars is due to a misconception, thinking that sun is simply a synonym for stars.

Most dictionaries define the Sun as the star which the earth orbits.

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KmartQuality t1_iy0xcnk wrote

It's has never been uttered realistically that way because nobody has ever been close to another star.

But it makes perfect sense in science fiction

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ParticleDetector OP t1_iy2b13c wrote

Since we aren’t talking about the Sun (proper noun version), are you talking about using ‘sun’ (the common noun version) as a replacement for any star, even though it’s not orbited by planets?

If so then yeah that’s it’s weird.

But isn’t ‘sun’ (as a common noun) already being used for a rather long time to describe stars with planets, in popular works, and have such characters in such works mention is as the ‘sun’ (common noun) of that planet etc?

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone here yet say that ‘sun’ is a straight synonym for ‘star’, especially lonely stars with nothing orbiting it.

Like, if you see binary stars and nothing else in that system, we don’t call those ‘suns’ right?

I think you assumed that I was using ‘sun’ as a synonym for every single star?

0

stackdatdough t1_ixzqspu wrote

This shit doesn’t even make sense. The sun is a star but that’s it. There’s only one sun

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TheWaffleWeirdo t1_iy03jy7 wrote

A sun is a star that has planets orbiting around it. It's like how our moon is called the moon, but there are still tons of other moons

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FrogBoglin t1_iy05jfy wrote

Our star is called the Sun and it's the only star with that name. Our moon is called Luna

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Alpha_Crow_1 t1_iy0bgci wrote

Our sun's name is Sol. No one ever calls it that though.

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BerossusZ t1_iy1vdc7 wrote

Our moon is actually called "Moon" and our star is "Sun". Sol and Luna could be used as other names for them and people love to say those are their "actual" names, but even scientists don't ever use them. Moon and Sun just ARE their names in the present day, not just what they're commonly called

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EliOfTheSong t1_iy2m5ys wrote

Everyone's being adequately pedantic about what constitutes a 'sun', but what about what it means to 'see'? Sunlight doesn't block light from stars from reaching our eyes, it just drowns it out. So in the day, our eyes receive light from all the extra-solar stars plus one solar star.

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ParticleDetector OP t1_iy2mpmy wrote

Haha! That makes a kind of sense! So…you see more suns in the daytime than at night?

And this goes down the rabbit hole of

  1. Nights where there are no moon - you see more stars because the moon occupies space in the sky

  2. Days where the sun and moon are in the sky together - you see least stars because now there are two bodies taking up some space in the sky.

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EliOfTheSong t1_iy2nmfk wrote

Ah you make a point that we have to take into account the stars the sun is physically blocking. If there are at least two stars behind the sun (and whose light is not gravitationally lensed around it), then night is back in the lead.

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ParticleDetector OP t1_iy2nqk4 wrote

Unless the moon is up and also blocks two stars!

Lol!

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mfb- t1_iy3kjmp wrote

The Moon is up in the day as often as in the night.

Stars are not uniformly distributed so the number varies during the (24 hour) day in some complex pattern.

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Cheyruz t1_iy2znx4 wrote

To continue the pedantism, I'd still argue that you don’t see the stars, even if you might see their light. If I stand around a corner from you and shine a flashlight on a wall you can see, you still don’t see the flashlight, just the light from it.

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ARPanda700 t1_ixz5i0t wrote

While not every single star in the night sky is a sun, the likelihood of there being >1 is still high.

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AxialGem t1_ixz5qc4 wrote

What makes something a sun, according to you?
Like, a star of the same type?

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shaneswa t1_ixzcyd7 wrote

Well naming a star "Sun" is probably the most important qualifier. What makes something a Jeffery, according to you?

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AxialGem t1_ixzdxue wrote

Haha, I mean you're right. A Jeffery, like all concepts, is simply that which we habitually call a Jeffery. Which can be many different things I guess

Not all Karens are named Karen either ;)

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ARPanda700 t1_ixz75qi wrote

> the luminous celestial body around which the earth and other planets revolve

I'd say a star that provides anything for the bodies revolving around it, even if it's just that gravity guidance, is a sun. A star solo-drifting off in space wouldn't be a sun in my mind, but I'm also not an astronomer so what do I know!

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AxialGem t1_ixz8iym wrote

Sure, that's why I asked what you personally meant I guess, I'm not sure whether 'sun' is always used in astronomy with a super rigorous definition, although I've heard 'sun-like star' plenty as well.
Afaik it is thought that most stars do in fact have planets, but ofc I'm also not an astronomer lol

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Reddit-User-3000 t1_iy2mi22 wrote

Yeah, “Sun” and “Star that acts like our sun” are technically both correct a according to many dictionaries including the Oxford English Dictionary, and Dictionary.com. However the latter also recognizes “Goblinmode” as a word. As incorrect phrases become common place they are eventually accepted, which is what happened in the case of the Sun. We have named many stars, ours not disclosed. We named our star “The Sun”, just as we named the largest known Star “UY Scuti”. At first calling stars Suns would have been the same as calling them Scutis, but since it has became more widely used and accepted it has become correct according to some reputable sources.

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AxialGem t1_iy2nmsz wrote

Definitely. Generalization is one of the most common and well-understood types of semantic change. Even if it wasn't in dictionaries, whether or not a word is commonly used in a certain way is an observable fact lol. But yea, they are right to list that broader usage of course

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Fhotaku t1_iy2pov4 wrote

A still more glorious dawn awaits, not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise.

A morning filled with 400 billion suns, the rising of the milky way

Carl Sagan, Cosmos

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Showerthoughts_Mod t1_ixz4z41 wrote

This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.

Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"

(For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)

Rule-breaking posts may result in bans.

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snowman-89 t1_ixzdz2o wrote

There is only one Sun, and there are still stars during the day, just not visible by the naked eye

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BlitzFan1234 t1_ixzw7bx wrote

Technically all stars that have orbiting planets are suns. While you are correct that the stars are there during the day you can’t see them therefore ops point still stands.

0

SyncMeASong t1_iy22gze wrote

Where are all of these r/confidentlyincorrect down votes coming from. How can people be so confident about astronomy, but not know how to use Google or one of the many dictionary sites.

Nothing wrong with OP's use of "sun."

Edit: fixed link

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ParticleDetector OP t1_iy2esm5 wrote

I think I’m seeing a few things happening in the replies.

  1. People thinking I’m using ‘sun’ interchangeably for every star out there regardless if they have planet/s orbiting it.

  2. People thinking I’m using ‘Sun’ the proper noun, instead of of ‘sun’ the common noun. (But I didn’t capitalize ‘sun’ anyway.

  3. People who somehow have not come across the usage of ‘sun’ the common noun in popular media (I’m just so not sure of this one because it’s so common that it’s improbable they missed it.)

Edit : 4. People perhaps thinking that I’m referring to other stars as a sun relative to where we are, when it’s a ‘sun’ relative to the planets orbiting that star. And again common usage in popular media.

I’m as perplexed as you are.

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SyncMeASong t1_iy2fzqr wrote

  1. Someone incorrectly thought they had a "gotcha on a technicality" moment -- and even selectively listed some definitions while omitting others that nullify his statement.

  2. That comment made it to the top early after being jumped on by other people with similar "gotcha" desires.

  3. Now the top comment is simply getting the reflexive subconscious upvotes that top comments get.

Laugh it off. :)

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Kenbujutsu t1_iy011q6 wrote

There are many stars but only one Sun.

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BlitzFan1234 t1_iy01nuw wrote

“A star is called a Sun only if positioned at the centre of a planetary system. And because many stars in the galaxy also have planets orbiting them, this also makes them Suns.” Quote from the https://www.optics-trade.eu website

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Plisq-5 t1_iy133an wrote

So, technically a planet could have two suns if it’s orbiting a binary system?

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WeirdCreeper t1_iy2bl79 wrote

Anyone who says there isn't more than one sun in the universe I'm just gonna start saying earth's star is relatively cold today better leave my jacket at home to avoid getting starburnt.

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[deleted] t1_iy1tjuw wrote

[deleted]

−2

Craeondakie t1_iy2vtwc wrote

This shower thought makes sense though? There's nothing really wrong with what OP said, top comment just wanted to pick a fight. Probably had nothing better to do.

2