Sol

Sol is the name or personification of the Sun, as originally used in Latin, but thought to be derived from a Sanskrit word.

The name is widely known, but not common in general English usage, although the related adjective solar is. It seems to be more frequently used in science fiction writing as a formal name for the star, perhaps to avoid the geocentric associations of the word Sun. By extension, the planetary system orbiting is often referred to as the "Sol System"

See also: Solar system, Star.

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Other meanings

• The term sol is also used by NASA engineers, in unmanned Mars mission operations, to refer to a solar day on Mars. (An Earth day is 24 hours long, a Mars day or "sol" is 24 hours, 37 minutes long.)
• The sol is also the currency of Peru (ISO 4217 currency code: PEN).
• Sol, the Roman god of the sun, was equivalent to the Greek god Helios. See Helios for more details.
• Norse mythology features a goddess named Sol.
• A sol is a colloidal solution in which the system is apparently liquid. If water is the continuous phase, the system is called a hydrosol. The term sol is also applied to the dispersion medium of a colloidal solution. See sol (colloid) for more details.
• In solfege, sol is the fifth note of the scale.
• sol is also the name of the Klondike solitaire card game which is part of the GNOME desktop environment.