I’m writing a work where characters are on a fictional planet not in our solar system. I wanted to refer to the planet’s star/source of light as “the sun” still, but is that correct? Is the sun as we know it the only “sun”, or is sun simply a word to describe our source of light?
In: Planetary Science
The sun is what we, specifically, call our central star. Its name is also technically Sol. We (on Earth) don’t refer to any other star as “the sun” because our language and culture evolved around having just one that really, *really* mattered to us.
Another planet could, and likely would, have a similar deal going on. It’s possible not the exact same word would be used (bc English language + cultural history) but I personally see no issue with that. It’ll be *their* sun, and I’ve seen this used in science fiction before as such.
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