4 ms·

The very first sentence is confusing to me: > On July 20, 1969, man first set foot on another planet. Has the definition of planet changed over time?

daveslash 8y ago
I so wish that your username had been "Pluto" when you asked that question. Snarkiness put aside, I searched around online to see if maybe I was missing something. It looks like it was simply a misuse of the word. I would have suggested using "celestial body" or even "world" in place of "planet". Perhaps he was using it in the colloquial sense (in the same way a tomato is a "vegetable").
basseq 8y ago
This question struck me. I, too, googled it, and came up empty handed. I then asked on Quora, which at the time of this comment, has 5 not-unreasonable answers. My favorite answer is Joshua Engel's: > It’s just a turn of phrase. He’s evoking the idea of “planet” as “one of the lights in the sky”, something people have long dreamed of. > It was an awkward phrase even at the time, though. George Low may have been a great administrator, but he’s a lousy writer. My red pen itched at every word. (In the very next sentence he misspells “mankind”.) He meant to be poetic, but his audience would have been confused by it, and that wouldn’t be the last time in that document. https://www.quora.com/Why-did-NASA-refer-to-the-Moon-as-a-planet-in-1970 https://www.quora.com/Why-did-NASA-refer-to-the-Moon-as-a-pl...
Someone 8y ago
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/planet https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/planet: ”1.2 Astrology historical A celestial body distinguished from the fixed stars by having an apparent motion of its own (including the moon and sun), especially with reference to its supposed influence on people and events. ‘the planets are presently influencing you in a positive way’” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet: ”In classical antiquity, the seven classical planets are the seven non-fixed astronomical objects in the sky visible to the naked eye: Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, the Sun, and the Moon. The word planet comes from two related Greek words, πλάνης planēs (whence πλάνητες ἀστέρες planētes asteres "wandering stars, planets") and πλανήτης planētēs, both with the original meaning of "wanderer", expressing the fact that these objects move across the celestial sphere relative to the fixed stars.”

daveslash 8y ago

I so wish that your username had been "Pluto" when you asked that question. Snarkiness put aside, I searched around online to see if maybe I was missing something. It looks like it was simply a misuse of the word. I would have suggested using "celestial body" or even "world" in place of "planet". Perhaps he was using it in the colloquial sense (in the same way a tomato is a "vegetable").

basseq 8y ago

This question struck me. I, too, googled it, and came up empty handed. I then asked on Quora, which at the time of this comment, has 5 not-unreasonable answers. My favorite answer is Joshua Engel's: > It’s just a turn of phrase. He’s evoking the idea of “planet” as “one of the lights in the sky”, something people have long dreamed of. > It was an awkward phrase even at the time, though. George Low may have been a great administrator, but he’s a lousy writer. My red pen itched at every word. (In the very next sentence he misspells “mankind”.) He meant to be poetic, but his audience would have been confused by it, and that wouldn’t be the last time in that document. https://www.quora.com/Why-did-NASA-refer-to-the-Moon-as-a-planet-in-1970 https://www.quora.com/Why-did-NASA-refer-to-the-Moon-as-a-pl...

Someone 8y ago

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/planet https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/planet: ”1.2 Astrology historical A celestial body distinguished from the fixed stars by having an apparent motion of its own (including the moon and sun), especially with reference to its supposed influence on people and events. ‘the planets are presently influencing you in a positive way’” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet: ”In classical antiquity, the seven classical planets are the seven non-fixed astronomical objects in the sky visible to the naked eye: Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, the Sun, and the Moon. The word planet comes from two related Greek words, πλάνης planēs (whence πλάνητες ἀστέρες planētes asteres "wandering stars, planets") and πλανήτης planētēs, both with the original meaning of "wanderer", expressing the fact that these objects move across the celestial sphere relative to the fixed stars.”