What is the origin of the people on Terra?

[Lyra]

I recently watched "Greetings from Earth Part 1 & 2", "Baltar's Escape", and "Experiment in Terra".
My dilemma is, I don't understand where the people of Terra are supposed to have originated from.

They obviously use the same terms of time measurement as we on earth do, in particular "minutes", "hours", and the like. Not as the Colonials do.

Michael from "Greetings from Earth", had to ask Apollo what a centon was.

So were the people of Terra some other colony whose origins came form Earth, millennia ago? Though, their technology is more advanced than earth's.

Apollo is asked to explain the colonial origins with Michael on Paradeen, but no other explanation of Terra's ancestry is mentioned, but that of a world divided between Free Nationalists and the Eastern Alliance.

Also, is Terra situated somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy or yet in another star system light years away, that the Colonial Fleets were passing through?

What do you warriors know on this?

[Sept17th]

There is a fan film script being worked and this thread may prove to be interesting for that endeavor.

My guess based on the language and shuttle design is that Terra is an offshoot of the Earth’s nations various space programs.

[Charybdis]

I believe it is also mentioned that the Terrans' were a totally new people, not an offshoot colony from the original colonies...but no mention of who exactly they were. I think the writers were trying to tie more and more 'earth' type stuff into the show, hence the minutes/hours language instead of the colonial language...

[Eric Paddon]

I came up with a theory of my own that you can find in the Planet Of The Apes crossover story that's posted in the forum here. But it is a theory that can only work in the context of that particular story I wrote.