LogFAQs > #879755819

darkknight109 posted...

You can read more here:

https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/

Specifically:

1976: The names of the then major planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) and the Earth's satellite (Moon) appear in IAU Resolution No. 10, which was approved by the XVIth General Assembly of the IAU in Grenoble, France in 1976.

[...]

So the IAU does recognize official names for the major planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and Earth's satellite (Moon).

To add to this, for those who still might not get it: Earth's satellite is not "The Moon", it's even not a moon. It's literally "Moon", the one and only.
Other planets do not have Moons; other planets have satellites, each with their own name.
Mars's satellites, for example are named Phobos and Deimos.
To say "they are Mars's Moons" is not wrong but it's not literal either. This is called descriptivism language.
Another example of descriptivism is: "Green Goblin is Spider-Man's Joker". That's not inherently wrong (I'm not trying to debate comics here), but obviously Green Goblin isn't literally Joker either, it's just used as a description (hence 'descriptivism').
The difference here is that most people don't realize that when you say another planet has Moons, it's not literal speech; there's only one Moon, thus other planets couldn't possibly have it. It's just a way to describe the natural satellites of other planets.

Conclusion: in casual or descriptivist language, "moon" is synonymous to "natural satellite". However in more literal language, like that required when talking about the names of specific things, they are completely separate things, as Moon is the literal name of Earth's satellite. It only has that one name, and it is the only satellite with that name.
---

"I've never in my life wanted to punch a girl like I want to right now" - Light Yagami
NNID: LLBCrook - PSN: ZBugCrook