Most of the constellations we know have etymological connections to Middle Eastern, Greek and Roman cultures. They identified clusters of stars as gods, goddesses, animals, parts of instruments and objects in their stories. For example Orion’s belt, the Great Bear or Saptarshi (Ursa Major), the Crane (Grus), Telescopium, reticulum etc. are connected with some or other stories in the mythology.
Today, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is in charge of naming celestial bodies. It is about a century old and approximately 10,000 scientists work for it. The stars are named by their coordinates on the celestial sphere, which is an imaginary sphere surrounding Earth. For example, the star Vega is recognised as "BD+38°3238” — the 3238th star in the band between 38° and 39° north.
Do you know the etymology of the name of planet Earth? It comes from the Anglo Saxon word erda, which means ground or soil
Question by Aman Rahman, III A
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