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Are you from Mars? and Other Idioms About Space

At the end of this month, we will have the closest view of the planet Mars since 2003. When Earth and Mars line up directly with the sun, it is called an opposition and this year this takes place on July 27. From this date until July 30, Mars will appear at its brightest since 2003. The planet will be visible for most of the night, hitting its highest point around midnight. Mars will reach its closest approach to Earth on July 31 and then become fainter by the middle of August. Here are 25 idioms about space: are you from Mars? – a question used to indicate that someone is out of touch with reality/the norm everything under the sun – everything on earth failure to la...

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Days of the Week

Like with the months, the names of the days in English hark back to the Romans. They are named after the seven ‘planets’ of classical astronomy: the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Later, the Germanic peoples adjusted the names of the days so that they reflected their own mythology rather than that of the Romans. As English is part of the West Germanic family of languages, the English words for the days (mostly) derive from these Germanic names. Monday – The word ‘Monday’ comes from the Old English ‘Monandaeg’, which translates to ‘day of the moon’, and comes from Máni, the North Germanic Moon-god. &...

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