Our night sky is full of wonders. When you look up you can see the stars, the Moon, and sometimes even other planets! We know what these otherworldly objects are because of centuries of research carried out by curious stargazers before us.  

Ancient peoples from across the Earth only knew about five of the planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. To the people of some ancient civilizations, the planets were thought to be representations of deities, for others they were a means through which gods communicated to humans. The Romans named the planets based qualities they displayed that resembled certain deities. For example, Venus was bright and beautiful, so it was named after the goddess of beauty. Mars was red and ominous, so it was named after the god of war. We still use the Roman names for the planets today.

Blink Comparator

Ancient civilizations did not have the powerful telescopes we use today. To their unaided eyes, these planets looked like the other stars that dotted the skies. But there was a difference in the way some of these stars moved. While all the stars in the sky move east to west as our Earth rotates, planets also move within their own orbit. This causes them to appear to wander throughout the night sky when compared to other stars, which move in a fixed position each day. For this reason, the Greeks referred to the planets as wandering stars. Our word "planet" comes from the Greek word planetes , meaning "wanderer." 

What’s at the Center of Our Solar System: The Earth or the Sun?  

The Greco-Roman astronomer Ptolemy came up with a theory for the solar system in the second century C.E. This theory survived for next 1,400 years. The ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle had previously introduced the idea that the heavens move in perfect circles. However, their theories were unable to account for some of the behaviors of the planets, like retrograde movement—when planets seemingly moved backward. 

In Ptolemy’s book, Almagest , he made their theory work by offsetting the center of the planetary spheres and then adding additional smaller circles for the planets to move in on top of the circles they moved in around the Earth. This theory was accurate to a point, describing the apparent motions of the planet from the perspective of Earth, and accounted for changes in the planets’ brightness. Ptolemy’s theory, while ultimately incorrect, was the dominant view until the Renaissance. However, that does not mean it was not questioned and modified by others. As early as the 10th century, Islamic astronomers saw problems with Ptolemy's planetary hypothesis. They developed new mathematical tools that made it work even better. And these tools were later adopted by European astronomers.

A chart containing early but accurate descriptions of planetary movements.

Diagrams illustrating Ptolemy’s planetary system.

In the 1500s, Nicolaus Copernicus, borrowing the mathematical tools developed by Islamic astronomers, broke with centuries of tradition when he argued that the Sun, not the Earth, was at the center of our Solar System. Copernicus was correct about the Sun, but he was not the first one to have this idea. About 1100 years earlier, the Greek astronomer Aristarchus came up with the same theory, but Ptolemy rejected the theory and Aristarchus was ignored. Copernicus was also still tied to the idea that the planets moved in a perfectly circular motion. 

Copernicus’s theory arranged the Earth and the five planets that were known in the correct order. The planets were shown to revolve around the Sun in circular orbits. It was not until 1609 that the German astronomer, Johannes Kepler, described planetary paths correctly as ellipses, or oval shaped.  However, there were many competing views of the arrangement of the universe during this period, and Copernicus himself did not release his manuscript for publication until he was on his deathbed.   

Telescopes Put Things into Focus 

Until the development of the telescope in the early 1600s, all astronomical observations were made with the naked eye. When Galileo Galilei turned his telescope to the sky in 1609, planetary astronomy became a new and different science.  

Telescopes were in use for many years before it was known how exactly they worked. The first theory of the telescope was written by noted astronomer Johannes Kepler in his 1610 book Dioptrice. One challenge astronomers faced was the distortion of the lenses used by telescopes. To correct for this distortion, telescopes became longer and longer. Telescopes longer than 30 meters (100 feet) were not uncommon.  

Hevelius' Longest Telescope from Machinae Coelestis

Sir Isaac Newton designed a reflecting telescope to overcome the color distortions produced by lenses. His telescope focused light with a concave mirror rather than by lenses. The telescope no longer needed to be a long and unwieldy tool.  

To the unaided eye, Venus appears to be just a point of light. Galileo observed Venus through a telescope and found the planet to have phases similar to the Moon. Early in 1610, Galileo observed four "stars" near Jupiter with his telescope. The motions of the stars relative to Jupiter led Galileo to the conclusion that they were moons of the giant planet. These moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto — are known today as the Galilean satellites in honor of their discoverer. 

Custom Image Caption

The planet Venus, as seen through our 16-inch Boller and Chivens telescope. The image was taken at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on August 29, 2010. Venus has a thick atmosphere that obscures surface features. The atmosphere reflects sunlight very well, making it very bright. Venus has phases like the moon, and is shown here as a waning crescent. (Smithsonian Institution)

This image of Venus was taken with the Public Observatory's 16 inch Boller & Chivens telescope at 10:00 AM on November 11, 2010. Here, Venus is a waxing crescent. Over the next few months, Venus will move farther away from the Earth in its orbit around the Sun, allowing us to see more and more of its daytime side. (Smithsonian Institution)

This image of Venus was taken at 10:00 in the morning using our 16-inch Boller and Chivens telescope. In this image, Venus is a waxing crescent, on it's way further away from the Earth. (Smithsonian Institution)

Discovering the Rest of our Solar System 

Before the 1700s, humans had only identified five planets besides our own in the night sky. The planet Uranus was discovered by a British astronomer named Sir William Herschel on March 13, 1781. Uranus had been observed many times previously, but it was always thought to be another star.  

William Herschel built his own telescopes, including one which had a focal length of 6 meters (20 feet) and a larger telescope of the same design with a 12 meter (40 foot) focal length. Uranus was discovered to be a planet accidentally while Herschel was surveying all stars down to magnitude eight. These were stars that are about ten times dimmer than can be seen by the naked eye. One of these “stars” looked different than the others. Within a year it was shown to have a planetary orbit 18 times father from the Sun than Earth. The new planet was named Uranus after the father of Saturn in Roman mythology.  

A circular image of a telescope with text around it describing the telescope. The image and accompanying text are mounted on a wooden frame.

Uranus and the dwarf planet Ceres were discovered by accident. Neptune, however, was not. Astronomers proposed that a planet beyond Uranus could account for irregularities in its orbit. Independently two astronomers calculated the position of this yet unknown planet. The two astronomers were John Couch Adams in England and Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier in France. 

The search began. A British astronomer James Challis, using Adams' predictions, observed the planet on the night of August 4, 1846, but failed to compare his observations with those of the previous night and did not recognize the planet. On September 23, 1846, the planet was finally found on the first try by the German astronomer Johann Galle using Le Verrier's predictions. 

A large dark blue disc.

Several astronomers interpreted the irregularities in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune as being caused by a more distant planet. Among these astronomers was the American Percival Lowell. Lowell started the search for this planet. He purchased a Carl Zeiss blink comparator, used to find differences between two photographs of the night sky, in 1911. In 1930, one of Lowell’s successors used that same instrument to finally find the planet, which would later be named Pluto. While Clyde Tombaugh was the person who eventually found Pluto, Lowell is credited with initiating the search. Today we define Pluto as a dwarf planet rather than a planet like Earth or Jupiter. 

What of the Moon? Do other planets have moons like Earth does? In 1900, the planets in our solar system were known to have 22 natural satellites, or moons. The number of known moons has now quadrupled and is still increasing. Likewise, astronomers also discovered new features of some planets. The rings of planets, such as those of Saturn, are a system of countless small satellites. In 1977, it was discovered that Uranus was encircled by a system of rings. Uranus' rings were discovered because they blocked a star from view as Uranus passed between the Earth and the star. The discovery of Uranus' rings occurred through observations made from the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. 

A handwritten letter describing the discovery of rings around Uranus next to a chart demonstrating the discovery. Both are in a display case.

Today astronomers continue to research our solar system and beyond. While our ancestors may have been focused on identifying the objects in our celestial neighborhood, we now have the technology to look even further. In the 1990s, the first exoplanets were discovered. Exoplanets are planets that are in orbit around a star that is different than our own (the Sun). Since then, astronomers have identified the location of over 5,000 other exoplanets and predict there are billions more!  

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wandering star in ancient greek

Copernicus’ revolution and Galileo’s vision: our changing view of the universe in pictures

wandering star in ancient greek

Associate professor, Monash University

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Michael J. I. Brown receives research funding from the Australian Research Council and Monash University, and has developed space-related titles for Monash University's MWorld educational app.

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It’s not a stretch to say the Copernican revolution fundamentally changed the way we think about our place in the universe. In antiquity people believed the Earth was the centre of the solar system and the universe, whereas now we know we are on just one of many planets orbiting the sun.

But this shift in view didn’t happen overnight. Rather, it took almost a century of new theory and careful observations, often using simple mathematics and rudimentary instruments, to reveal our true position in the heavens.

We can gain insights into how this profound shift unfolded by looking at the actual notes left by the astronomers who contributed to it. These notes give us a clue to the labour, insights and genius that drove the Copernican revolution.

Wandering stars

Imagine you’re an astronomer from antiquity, exploring the night sky without the aid of a telescope. At first the planets don’t really distinguish themselves from the stars. They’re a bit brighter than most stars and twinkle less, but otherwise look like stars.

In antiquity, what really distinguished planets from stars was their motion through the sky. From night to night, the planets gradually moved with respect to the stars. Indeed “planet” is derived from the Ancient Greek for “wandering star”.

And planetary motion isn’t simple. Planets appear to speed up and slow down as they cross the sky. Planets even temporarily reverse direction, exhibiting “ retrograde motion ”. How can this be explained?

Ptolemy epicycles

wandering star in ancient greek

Ancient Greek astronomers produced geocentric (Earth-centred) models of the solar system, which reached their pinnacle with the work of Ptolemy . This model, from an Arabic copy of Ptolemy’s Almagest , is illustrated above.

Ptolemy explained planetary motion using the superposition of two circular motions, a large “ deferent ” circle combined with a smaller “ epicycle ” circle.

Furthermore, each planet’s deferent could be offset from the position of the Earth and the steady (angular) motion around the deferent could be defined using a position know as an equant , rather than the position of the Earth or the centre of the deferent. Got that?

It is rather complex. But, to his credit, Ptolemy’s model predicted the positions of planets in the night sky with an accuracy of a few degrees (sometimes better). And it thus became the primary means of explaining planetary motion for over a millennium.

Copernicus’ shift

wandering star in ancient greek

In 1543, the year of his death, Nicolaus Copernicus started his eponymous revolution with the publication of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres). Copernicus’ model for the solar system is heliocentric, with the planets circling the sun rather than Earth.

Perhaps the most elegant piece of the Copernican model is its natural explanation of the changing apparent motion of the planets. The retrograde motion of planets such as Mars is merely an illusion , caused by the Earth “overtaking” Mars as they both orbit the sun.

Ptolemaic baggage

wandering star in ancient greek

Unfortunately, the original Copernican model was loaded the Ptolemaic baggage. The Copernican planets still travelled around the solar system using motions described by the superposition of circular motions. Copernicus disposed of the equant, which he despised , but replaced it with the mathematically equivalent epicyclet.

Astronomer-historian Owen Gingerich and his colleagues calculated planetary coordinates using Ptolemaic and Copernican models of the era, and found that both had comparable errors . In some cases the position of Mars is in error by 2 degrees or more (far larger than the diameter of the moon). Furthermore, the original Copernican model was no simpler than the earlier Ptolemaic model.

As 16th Century astronomers did not have access to telescopes, Newtonian physics, and statistics, it wasn’t obvious to them that the Copernican model was superior to the Ptolemaic model, even though it correctly placed the sun in the centre of the solar system.

Along comes Galileo

wandering star in ancient greek

From 1609, Galileo Galilei used the recently invented telescope to observe the sun, moon and planets. He saw the mountains and craters of the moon, and for the first time revealed the planets to be worlds in their own right. Galileo also provided strong observational evidence that planets orbited the sun.

Galileo’s observations of Venus were particularly compelling. In Ptolemaic models, Venus remains between the Earth and the sun at all times, so we should mostly view the night side of Venus. But Galileo was able to observe the day-lit side of Venus, indicating that Venus can be on the opposite side of the sun from the Earth.

Kepler’s war with Mars

wandering star in ancient greek

The circular motions of Ptolemaic and Copernican models resulted in large errors, particularly for Mars, whose predicted position could be in error by several degrees. Johannes Kepler devoted years of his life to understanding the motion of Mars, and he cracked this problem with a most ingenious weapon.

Planets (approximately) repeat the same path as they orbit the sun, so they return to the same position in space once every orbital period. For example, Mars returns to the same position in its orbit every 687 days.

As Kepler knew the dates when a planet would be at the same position in space, he could use the different positions of the Earth along its own orbit to triangulate the planets’ positions, as illustrated above. Kepler, using astronomer Tycho Brahe’s pre-telescopic observations , was able to trace out the elliptical paths of the planets as they orbited the sun.

This allowed Kepler to formulate his three laws of planetary motion and predict planetary positions with far greater precision than previously possible. He thus laid the groundwork for the Newtonian physics of the late 17th century, and the remarkable science that followed.

Kepler himself captured the new world view and its broader significance in 1609’s Astronomia nova (New Astronomy):

To me, however the truth is more pious still, and (with all due respect to the Doctors of the Church) I prove philosophically not only that the earth is round, not only that it is inhabited all the way around at the antipodes, not only that is it contemptibly small, but also that it is carried along among the stars.
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Babylonian and greek astronomy: introduction.

For ancient people all over the world the sky was an integral part of their natural environment. This led to a widespread familiarity with the night sky and the recognition of cycles of the behavior of celestial bodies. Changes in the night sky were connected to life on earth through the development of calendars which linked the cycles of the sun, moon, and stars to both civil life, for example through farming seasons, and religion through the performance of rituals on specific dates during the month or year. In addition, the night sky provided phenomena which could be interpreted through systems of astrology to predict the future and understand the past and present.

Mesopotamian Astronomy

Fragment of a cuneiform tablet

Mesopotamian astronomy has been of key importance for the development of western and Islamic astronomy as many concepts we still use (form the zodiac signs to the 360 degree division of the circle used to measures angles) derive from them. The earliest written texts known from Mesopotamia attest to knowledge of the cycles of the sun and moon in the form of a calendar with months which began with the first appearance of the new moon crescent and the addition of an extra thirteenth month in certain years in order to keep the calendar in line with the seasons. From the early second millennium BCE we have Babylonian cuneiform texts containing omens drawn from the appearance of celestial phenomena including eclipses and texts containing simple numerical schemes for the variation in the length of day and night over the seasons, as well as evidence for a well-established tradition of the star and constellation names. These traditions were further developed in two standard texts written either towards the end of the second millennium or early in the first millennium BCE: the omen compendium Enūma Anu Enlil and the astronomical compendium MUL.APIN.

Beginning in about 750 BCE, Babylonian astronomers were actively engaged in making detailed and careful observations of astronomical phenomena including the first and last appearances, stations, and acronychal risings of the five planets visible to the naked eye, the passages of the moon and the planets past selected reference stars distributed around the zodiacal band, lunar and solar eclipses, and the phases of the moon. They kept systematic records of these observations in texts known to modern scholars as ‘Astronomical Diaries’, of which several hundred are still preserved. From these observations, the Babylonian astronomers developed mathematically complex and precise ways of predicting astronomical phenomena in advance.

Many aspects of Babylonian astronomy circulated across the ancient world and were incorporated within the astronomies of Egypt, Greece, and India. These include the names of many constellations, concepts such as the uniformly divided zodiac (developed in Babylonia in the fifth century BCE) and the degree as a unit of measurement, many astrological concepts and techniques such as the personal horoscope and the planetary exultations, and arithmetical systems for computing lunar and planetary phenomena with their underlying numerical parameters which were used widely by Greek astronomers including Hipparchus and Ptolemy.

ca. 1000 BCE Enūma Anu Enlil .

ca. 1000 BCE MUL.APIN.

  • King Nabonassar (747-734 BCE)

747 BCE Earliest Babylonian astronomical observations.

  • King Nebuchednezzar II (605-562 BCE)

ca. 600 BCE Beginning of the Babylonian Astronomical Diary tradition.

ca. 600-100 BCE Ziqpu star list .

  • Achaemenid Persian period

ca. 400 BCE Development of the twelve equal length signs of the zodiac in Babylon.

ca. 350 BCE Development of mathematical astronomy in Babylon.

Greek Astronomy

Papyrus fragment

Greek astronomy, which is mostly based on geometry, introduced concepts that we still use in modern astronomy, such as the celestial sphere and celestial coordinates. Greek astronomers also developed a series of geometrical models and methods used until the development of the first telescopes, which improved both the accuracy and scope of the observations and led to more refined models. Ancient Greek concepts and methods developed over many centuries, from the seventh century BCE when we have the first evidence, mostly from literary texts that mention specific stars or constellations, to the second century CE when Greek astronomy reached its highest point with Ptolemy.

The first philosopher-scientists between the seventh and early fifth century BCE started observing celestial phenomena such as eclipses, solstices and equinoxes, and developed the first models of the cosmos. Starting from the middle of the fifth century one of the main problems was the organization of the calendar, since the Greeks used lunar calendars which needed to be synchronized with the solar year to keep the lunar-based calendar in line with seasonal changes.

Another important problem was hourly time reckoning: while during the day the Greeks could keep track of the passing of time with sundials, in the night they kept track of the hours through the observation of the rising of the zodiac constellations first, and of the zodiac signs later; the latter, devised by the Babylonians and adopted by the Greeks in the late fourth century BCE, are arcs of a circle which divide the ecliptic into 12 equal parts, each of 30 degrees.

Starting from the fourth century on, the main problem in Greek astronomy became how to predict the movements of the planets, which the Greeks called “wandering stars”. This name was used in contrast to the “fixed stars”, which always cross the sky from east to west in arcs with a constant angular speed and maintain their positions relative to each other unaltered. Planets or wandering stars, however, add to the same nightly motions of fixed stars a much slower zig-zag pattern very close to the ecliptic. As a result, to someone on the Earth observing planets night after night they seem to be first moving relative to the fixed stars from east to west, then stopping (the so-called “stations”), then going backwards (i.e., going from west to east; the so-called “retrogradations”), then stopping again and eventually resume their westward movement. This problem and the possible geometrical models which could be used to predict the movements of the five planets known by the Greeks (Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) as well as of the Sun and the Moon occupy most of Hellenistic astronomy until Ptolemy, who devised the most sophisticated models.

The Greeks and the Romans, especially in the late Hellenistic period and then in the Imperial period, were also very interested in astrology, which was first developed by the Babylonians in the early second millennium BCE and imported to Greece and Rome during the Hellenistic period where it was further developed. We have plenty of papyri from the Hellenistic period to Late Antiquity reporting horoscopes and other astrological predictions, which all point to the popularity of this discipline. Indeed, professional astronomers like Ptolemy also engaged with astrology (in fact, the word astrologos in Greek means both “astronomer” and “astrologer”).

Here you can read more on:

Early Greek Astronomy

Hellenistic Greek Astronomy

Ptolemy and Later Greek Astronomy

Islamic Astronomy

Western Astronomy

Select Bibliography

  • Beck, Roger L. 2007. A Brief History of Ancient Astrology. Brief Histories of the Ancient World. Malden (Mass.) - Oxford: Blackwell.
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  • Steele, John M. 2008. A Brief Introduction to Astronomy in the Middle East. Brief introductions series. London: Saqi.

Book cover

Advancing Cultural Astronomy pp 211–222 Cite as

The Stars in Ancient Greece

  • Robert Hannah 16  
  • First Online: 09 April 2021

571 Accesses

Part of the Historical & Cultural Astronomy book series (HCA)

In this paper I examine the early formation and use of constellations in ancient Greece, firstly in broad terms as an exercise in mapping the sky for a variety of reasons—navigation, agricultural activities, religious timing—and then in more detail by analysing a part of the content of an early data set of star-risings and star-settings (a parapegma) attributed to Euktemon in the late fifth century BCE. I conclude that awareness of the movement of stars and constellations permeated ancient Greek everyday life and activities—the ability to make use of astronomical knowledge was not restricted to specific classes or groups in society. The elements of the night-sky were a kind of time device that could influence all activities, from those on which the subsistence of the community relied (e.g. agriculture and navigation), to those which guaranteed economic and civic stability, as well as the maintenance of the cosmic order through the performance of religious festivals at the correct time.

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Note, however, the caveat expressed by Rochberg ( 1998 ): 1–3 regarding the dissimilarities between Babylonian and Greco-Egyptian ‘horoscopes’, with the former deserving to be classified more as ‘astronomical’ than ‘astrological’ in light of the absence of prognostications.

The brief and remarkably uninformative discussion of the navigational technique implied by Homer in as authoritative a text as McGrail ( 2001 ): 101 is unfortunately typical of literature on this passage.

Contrast Sider and Brunschön ( 2007 ): 9 n. 26–27, 37 n. 94–95, who seem to regard the parapegmata as inherently impractical on the basis of their perception that Theophrastos’s treatise On Weather Signs is also impractical. Their comparison confuses different genres.

The text used is that published by Aujac ( 1975 ). The fact that Geminos organises the parapegmata according to the zodiacal months indicates that Euktemon’s original parapegma, composed before the institution of zodiacal months around 300 BCE, has been forced to some extent into a foreign framework. Such a manoeuvre may mean some accuracy has been sacrificed in the transmission, but we have no way of knowing.

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Hannah, R. (2021). The Stars in Ancient Greece. In: Boutsikas, E., McCluskey, S.C., Steele, J. (eds) Advancing Cultural Astronomy. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64606-6_10

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Astra Planeta – When the Greek Gods Were Planets

The Astra Planeta were a group of five Greek gods - "The Wandering Stars"

The Astra Planeta were a group of five Greek gods – “The Wandering Stars”

The ancient Greek astronomers knew of five planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the star-like planets visible to the naked eye.

They called these planets “wanderers”, as when seen with the naked eye, they seemed to wander across the night sky, changing course every now and then, depending on the time of the year.

The stars in the night sky are fixed, the planets move around the sun at different rates, so they are not fixed; they appear to wander over time.

The English word for planet derives from the Greek word, πλανήτης ( planítis ), which means wanderer.

Astra Planeta:

Wandering stars.

Planets and Gods by A89iksm on Deviant Art.

Planets and Gods by A89iksm on Deviant Art.

The Astra Planeta was a group of five gods, the “Wandering Stars”, from Greek mythology, who were sometimes also referred to as the Astra.

They were considered to be the five sons of the Titan Astraeus, god of dusk or twilight and the goddess of the Dawn, Eos.

This parentage made the Astra Planeta brothers to  the Anemoi, Greek wind gods.

Their names were:

The personification of the planet Mercury (Greek Hermes)

The personification of the planet Venus (Greek Aphrodite) the morning star

Also the personification of the planet Venus as the evening star,   as at the time, Venus was thought to be both the morning and the evening star

The personification of the planet Mars (Greek Ares)

The personification of the planet Jupiter (Greek Zeus)

(Not to be confused with Phaethon, also spelled Phaëthon, who was the son of the sea nymph Clymene and the sun god Apollo in Greek mythology)

The personification of the planet Saturn (Greek Cronus)

They were the personification of the Classical planets (but did not include the Sun, Moon or Earth).

Neither were the planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto included, as they are invisible to the naked eye and so, they were unknown to the ancient Greeks.

The Astra Planeta lived amongst the stars; however, they were also thought to have a second home, the mystical, great River Oceanus (Okeanos), which encircled the whole world, a place they went to when they disappeared below the horizon.

The Astra Planeta in order of distance from the Sun

The closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster it needs to move to maintain orbit.

The fastest moving planet is Mercury, then, Venus, then Earth then Mars then Jupiter and then Saturn.

Mercury – 36 million miles (58 million kilometres)

Venus – 67 million miles (108 million kilometers)

Mars – 142 million miles (228 million kilometers)

Jupiter – 484 million miles (778 million kilometers)

Saturn – 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers)

Now, I know you’re all wondering, if the Astra Planta, the five planets known to the ancient Greeks are named after Greek gods, why then, do they all have Ancient Roman names?

Well, it’s easy, the Greeks did everything first, the Romans just “Borrowed”!

Mercury – Hermes

Ancient Gods and Planets - Mercury(Greek Hermes) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Ancient Gods and Planets – Mercury(Greek Hermes) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

The planet Mercury (roman), the smallest planet in our Solar System and the closest to the Sun, is named after the Greek god Hermes, messenger of the gods and the protector of, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orators.

He moves swiftly between the worlds of the living and the dead, aided by his winged sandals, so you can see, it’s no coincidence he was chosen to depict the fastest moving planet.

 He is also known as Hermes the psychopomp or “soul guide”, the deliverer of souls into the afterlife.

Mercury’s orbit around the Sun takes 88 days, the shortest of all the Sun’s planets and because it is so close to the sun, after sunset, it can only be seen for an extremely short time with the naked eye, before it disappears beyond the horizon.

Mercury is a hot planet, with an average surface temperature of 332 degrees Fahrenheit, funnily enough though, dry ice forms in its craters.

In astrology, Mercury represents communication, mentality, thinking patterns, rationality and reasoning, adaptability and variability, day to day expression and relationships.

 Mercury rules over schooling and education transport over short distances, messages and communication such as post, email and telephone, newspapers, journalism and writing, information gathering skills and physical dexterity.

In medicine, Mercury is related to the nervous system, the brain, the respiratory system, the thyroid and the sense organs.

Mercury is a planet of opportunity, planet, unemotional and curious.

Mercury rules over the day of Wednesday.

Venus – Aphrodite

Ancient Gods and Planets – Venus (Greek Aphrodite) by Mike Airlino.

Ancient Gods and Planets – Venus (Greek Aphrodite) by Mike Airlino.

Venus (Roman) is the second planet from the Sun and is named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation.

Again, it’s not by chance Aphrodite was chosen to represent the planet which rules over romantic relations, marriage and business partnerships.

Venus is the brightest natural object in Earth’s night sky after the Moon and can cast shadows and is visible to the naked eye in broad daylight.

Venus orbits the Sun in 225 days.

Venus is not only veiled in a thick atmosphere of deadly gases; sulphuric acid pours down on its surface, which is a burning hot 863 degrees Fahrenheit.

In astrology, Venus is associated with harmony, beauty, refinement, affections, love, and the urge to sympathize and unite with others.

 Venus is involved with the desire for pleasure, comfort and ease.

In medicine, the planet Venus is linked with the reproductive system, lumbar region, the veins, parathyroid, throat and kidneys.

Venus rules over the day of Friday.

Mars – Ares

Ancient Gods and Planets - Mars (GreekAres ) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Ancient Gods and Planets – Mars (GreekAres ) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, larger than only Mercury.

Mars (Roman) is named after  the Greek god of war, Ares.

Mars is known as the red planet, which is why it was named after the god of war, owing to the bloodshed in battles, however, Mars was  not red from blood but because of the iron oxide (rust) in the soil.

Mars orbits the Sun in 687 days and is the first planet to orbit outside of Earth’s orbit, making it the first planet that does not set along with the Sun.

Mars has two permanent polar ice caps, which, in winter, when the planet is in complete darkness, cause blocks of dry ice to form.

In astrology, Mars is associated with aggression, confrontation, energy, strength, ambition and impulsiveness, just like it’s namesake, Ares.

Mars rules over sports, competitions and physical activities in general.

In medicine, Mars is connected to the genitals, the muscular system, the gonads and adrenal glands, fever, accidents, trauma, pain and surgery.

 Mars rules over the day of Tuesday.

Jupiter – Zeus

Ancient Gods and Planets – Jupiter (Greek Zeus) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Ancient Gods and Planets – Jupiter (Greek Zeus) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System, with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.

Jupiter (Roman) is named after Zeus, King of all ancient Greek gods and ruler of Mount Olympus; he is the sky and thunder god of ancient Greece.

A good choice for a planet, which is the king of all other planets and a giant to boot, with spectacular, brightly colored clouds and intense storms.

Jupiter is surrounded by a planetary ring system and a powerful magnetosphere and has 80 known moons (there may be many more as yet undetected), including the four large moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610, all named after characters from Greek mythology; Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Io and Europa are about the size of Earth’s Moon; Callisto is almost the size of the planet Mercury, and Ganymede is larger.

Jupiter takes 11.9 years to orbit the Sun.

Some astronomers believe that Jupiter, by using its massive gravity, captures or expels from the solar system, many comets and asteroids, that would otherwise threaten Earth and the inner planets.

In astrology, Jupiter is associated with the principles of growth, expansion, healing, prosperity, good fortune, and miracles.

 Jupiter rules over long distance and foreign travel, big business and wealth, higher education, religion, and the law.

In medicine, Jupiter is related to matters of the liver, pituitary gland and the disposition of fats.

Jupiter rules over the day of Thursday.

Saturn – Cronus

Ancient Gods and Planets - Saturn (Greek Cronus) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Ancient Gods and Planets – Saturn (Greek Cronus) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter.

 It has an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth but only one-eighth the average density of Earth.

The planet’s most well-known feature is its ring system.

At least 83 moons orbit Saturn, 53 of which are officially named.

Saturn takes 29.5 years to orbit the Sun.

Saturn (Roman) is named after the leader and ruler of the Titans, Cronus and father of Zeus (Jupiter).

Cronus (not to be confused with Chronos, the personification of time), being the god of the harvest, or agriculture, is depicted with a scythe or a sickle, which was the instrument he also used to castrate his father, Uranus.

In astrology, Saturn is associated with focus, precision, nobility, ethics, civility, lofty goals, career, great achievements, dedication, authority figures, stability, virtues, productiveness, valuable hard lessons learned, destiny, structures, protective roles, balance, meritocracy, conservatism and karma.

In medicine, Saturn rules over the right ear, the spleen, the bladder, the phlegm and the bones.

Saturn rules over the day of Saturday.

The tradition lives on:

Today we have eight known planets in our universe (pluto was demoted to dwarf planet)., all are named after greek gods.

All currently known planets are named from Greek mythology.

All currently known planets are named from Greek mythology.

Since the invention of the telescope, Western astrology has added Uranus, Neptune and Pluto to the list of recognized planets; three planets unknown to the Greeks as they were not visible to the naked eye.

Ancient Gods and Planets - Uranus digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Ancient Gods and Planets – Uranus digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Uranus, in Greek mythology the personification of the sky, discovered in 1781, is the seventh planet from the sun.

Neptune – Poseidon

Ancient Gods and Planets - Neptune(Greek Poseidon) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Ancient Gods and Planets – Neptune(Greek Poseidon) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Neptune, named after,  Poseidon, Greek god of the sea discovered in 1846, is the eighth planet from the sun and is predominantly blue, making its name an excellent choice.

Pluto – Hades

Ancient Gods and Planets - Neptune(Greek Poseidon) digital artwork by Mike Airlino.

Pluto,  Hades, Greek, god of the Underworld discovered in 1930, is the ninth, and farthest planet from the sun, and is named after the god of the underworld because it is so cold and dark there.

Even though these planets were discovered thousands of years after the Astra Planeta , the five planets known to the ancient Greeks, they were none the less, honoured with names of ancient Greek gods.

Today we have eight known planets in our universe (Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet).

All are named after Greek gods, they are:

Mercury – Roman name for Hermes

Venus – Roman name for Aphrodite

Earth – Closely associated with Roman Terra Mater (Gaia to Greeks which is why Gi is Earth in Greek)

Mars – Roman name for Ares

Jupiter – Roman name for Zeus

Saturn – Roman name for Cronus

Uranus – The only planet that actually kept its original Greek name

Neptune – Roman name for Poseidon

A special thank you to the talented artist, Mike Airlino , for his wonderful artwork I used in this post.

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Ancient Origins

Wandering Sky Gods: The Personification of Astronomical Phenomena in Ancient Times

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It is 1000 BC, roughly 3000 years ago. Things have changed in the civilized world. The Bronze Age is fading, to be replaced by the time of Iron. Armies strive across portions of the Near East and the Aegean. Trojans and Greeks have indulged in their civil war. Hebrews and Philistines strive for control of a small section of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Aryans now control the Indus Valley and the caste system is emerging in India.

The alphabet has been invented and is beginning to replace earlier scripts. The scribe class will become obsolete and literacy will slowly spread. Restless human groups—Celts, Etruscans, and others—migrate across great distances, sometimes threatening the established order in the lands they enter.

In what will someday be called the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is a ruin. Its ancient purpose, lost with its builders in the mists of prehistory, has been replaced by the rites of Druids, the priestly caste of the local Celts.

But civilization continues through this time of turmoil and change. In what is now Iraq and Iran, the people of Babylon have erected multi-story stone towers called ziggurats. From the tops of these structures, a new class of priest-astronomer continues the exploration of the heavens. Unlike their Neolithic and Bronze Age forebears, they do not concentrate their efforts on the primary lights in the day and night sky—the Sun and Moon. Instead, they carefully observe the shifting positions of those wandering star-like objects that they call “planets.”

To these sky observers, Earth of course was not a planet, it was humanity’s home base and distinct from the celestial realm. However, the naked-eye planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were the targets of these early astronomers. Their observations of planetary positions would lead to the later Greek models of the Solar System, or cosmogonies.

Table 1 gives the names of the naked-eye planets according to the Romans, Greeks, and Babylonians. Today, we associate Roman names with the naked-eye planets. It is significant that, in all three traditions, the naked-eye planets or wandering stars are named for major gods and goddesses in the ancient pantheons. Nabu was the god of wisdom and a patron of scribes, Ishtar was a love and fertility goddess, Nergal was a war god (probably because of the planet’s red color), Marduk was the king of the gods, and Ninib was a former Sun god now deposed to represent a modest planet.

Table 1. Naked-eye planet names according to three ancient traditions.

It is likely no coincidence that the naked-eye planets are named for various classical and pre-classical gods and goddesses. In a victory for the art of marketing, the priest-astronomers convinced many influential residents of ancient city states and empires that these moving lights in the sky actually were divine.

This identification of planets with divine entities was not limited to ancient Babylon, Greece, and Rome. At about the same time in human history, similar approaches to viewing the motions of Solar System bodies were being adopted in Egypt, India, and China. The brightest of the naked-eye planets, Venus, would also become important in the religious thought of New World people including the Aztecs and Mayas of Central America.

Even though we live in a secular age, the days of the week are named for moving lights in the sky. Sunday, of course, belongs to the Sun and Monday is the Moon’s day. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are respectively identified with Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn.

Perhaps because of the ancient popularity of this celestial identity system, Babylonian priest-astronomers morphed into the first astrologers. If you had the resources, you could commission one of these authorities to cast your horoscope. Your personal characteristics might have a great deal to do with planet positions in the sky on your day of birth. You could plan your daily activities using this sky guide.

In the classical world, many rulers would not sign a treaty (or break one) without first consulting the opinion of Jupiter. A general preparing for a significant battle would be very interested in the celestial location of Mars. If you were planning a business deal or a trade arrangement, Mercury and Saturn could be consulted for advice. And if you were a Lady of the Court interested in conducting a love affair, it certainly might help to follow the advice offered by Venus.

Today astrology is, at least to most educated people, a parlor game. Perhaps the most famous pick-up line at a cocktail party is “what’s your sign?” But in the ancient world, the position of the Sun among the 12 constellations of the zodiac on your date of birth was of great significance. This cannot be said of all ancient people, since astrology was satirized by ancient Hebrew authors in the Biblical tale of the “Tower of Babel.”

Jupiter, Ancient Roman sky deity, and his relative Thetis

Jupiter, Ancient Roman sky deity, and his relative Thetis ( public domain )

Long before the dawn of electricity, these civilized and literate people tried to make sense of the night sky literally filled with stars. They were a long way from understanding these distant lights that appeared and vanished in accord with diurnal and seasonal cycles. Perhaps to become more comfortable with this celestial immensity, they filled the sky with heroes, gods, and demons. In some cases, divine and mortal consciousness was identified with stellar hosts.

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Consider the constellation Gemini, for example. The two brightest stars in this zodiacal constellation are Castor and Pollux. Perhaps these stars are of similar visual brightness and are near neighbors (only 4.5 degrees apart) on the celestial sphere. They were identified as the Great Twins by the Sumerians.

To the Classical Greeks and Romans, these stars were the twin children of Zeus (the ruler of the Olympian gods) and Leda, a married mortal woman seduced by Zeus while disguised as a swan. Both boys hatched from the same egg and became heroes, joining with Jason on the quest for the Golden Fleece. Unlike his immortal twin, Castor was mortal. After Castor was killed in a fight, his brother beseeched Zeus to bring him back to life. Ultimately, these two now-immortal twins were transferred to the sky as Alpha and Beta Gemini, the two brightest stars in that constellation. As well as eternally sharing each other’s company in the celestial realm, the rising of these stars before sunrise in late spring heralded calm summer seas and was welcomed by sailors.

Other ancient people also viewed these stars as conscious entities. Although Arabian astronomers also called them The Twins, some medieval Arabian sky maps picture them as a pair of peacocks. In ancient India they were identified as The Horsemen.

Although no longer considered to be inhabited by divine mortals, Castor and Pollux are fascinating astronomical objects. Castor is the 23rd brightest star in the sky, with a visual magnitude of 1.59. A blue-white hydrogen-burning main sequence star, it is at a distance of about 45 light years and actually consists of three components, each of which is a binary star. Pollux is an orange-red giant at a distance of about 35 light years and has a visual brightness slightly greater than its twin.

Statue of twins Castor and Pollux

Statue of twins Castor and Pollux ( public domain )

Star-crossed lovers

Along with Deneb, the bright stars Altair and Vega form the Summer Triangle, a prominent star grouping in the northern hemisphere summer sky. Between these two stars is the Milky Way galaxy.

Ancient Chinese sky watchers had no idea that the faint, nebulous substance of the Milky Way is actually the combined radiance of billions of faint stars. Instead, they believed it to be a celestial river. Around 700 BC, a myth developed around these stars and the “river” that separates them.

Altair is the Cowherd and Vega is the Weaving Lady. Although these mortal lovers were originally reunited in heaven, an early Chinese deity, the Queen Mother of the West, became annoyed by the lovers’ celestial activities and drew a line between them. This line became the Milky Way, a celestial river that always separates Altair and Vega.

To ancient Chinese, the Milky Way was a celestial river

To ancient Chinese, the Milky Way was a celestial river ( Don McCrady / Flickr )

Seven Sisters—or maybe only six

The most famous mortals to be identified with stars are the ladies of the Pleiades. Viewed under low magnification through binoculars or a small telescope, a few hundred young stars might be counted in this open cluster, which is classified as M45 in the catalog of the 18th century French astronomer Charles Messier. On a clear night far from city lights, an observer with excellent eyesight is lucky to count six visible Pleiades. So it is somewhat of a mystery that so many ancient traditions refer to this grouping as the Seven Sisters. I don’t think that people on average had better eyesight in antiquity than today. So we are left with two alternatives: either one of the brightest of the young, evolving stars in this grouping has decreased in brightness a bit over the last few millennia or Earth’s skies are a little less transparent than they used to be.

The Pleiades as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope

The Pleiades as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope (courtesy NASA).

But not all ancient people saw the Pleiades as seven stars. Some Chinese, Japanese, Aboriginal, and Native American people recognized six women associated with the bright, young, massive stars in this grouping rather than seven.

The most famous myth regarding the Pleiades is the Greek story of a pursuit of seven maidens by the sexually aroused hunter Orion (who is also a sky resident). In answer to their pleas, Zeus placed both pursuer and pursued in the sky. In the celestial realm, the pursuit continues. In some traditions, the seven maidens were companions of the goddess Artemis.

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The seven maidens representing the Pleiades in Greek mythology

The seven maidens representing the Pleiades in Greek mythology ( public domain )

In a Hindu myth of the 5th century BC, there is a connection between the Pleiades and the stars of the Big Dipper. In this myth the seven visible stars in the Big Dipper are sages and the stars of the Pleiades are their wives.

To ancient Incan astronomers, the Pleiades were not individual entities. Instead, they were the eyes of Viracoha, the god of thunder.

In the vicinity of the zodiacal constellation Taurus the Bull there is another open cluster, the Hyades. This is a more mature open cluster than the Pleiades and the nebulosity of the stellar birth nebula has dispersed. According to Greek myth, the visible members of this cluster were daughters of Atlas, the titan responsible for holding up the sky.

How the Sun God gets Around

Some sky myths attempt to explain how the Sun God moves through the sky.  Ancient Egyptians believed that the Sun God Ra rose in the east and sailed in a solar boat across his celestial realm before setting in the west.  According to Greek sources, Helios (also referred to as Apollo) was transported instead in a chariot drawn through the heavens by four celestial steeds. As an example of how powerful such imagery is, even to scientifically sophisticated moderns, the below image presents the mission patch of the aborted Apollo 13 lunar expedition. Note there are only three celestial steeds pulling the Sun in this image. Where is the fourth?

Apollo 13 mission patch

Apollo 13 mission patch (courtesy NASA).

Featured image:   The Mutilation of Uranus by Saturn: fresco by Giorgio Vasari and Cristofano Gherardi, c. 1560 ( public domain ).

By: Greg Matloff

This article has been excerpted from Greg Matloff (with art by C Bangs), ‘ Starlight, Starbright: Are Stars Conscious ’ , Curtis, Norwich, UK (2015), and has been republished with permission.

I read that one of the stars in the Pleiades asterism (a group of stars that's smaller than a constellation) is a long-term variable star. Its intensity rises and falls over a couple of centuries or so and it's at its least visible in our time. It will be bright again in a hundred years and there will be seven prominent stars again.

Wonderfully compiled and I enjoyed the read. I hope your insightful research encourages others to further explore the infinite mysteries of our universe.

Ancient cultures well before the Babylonians and historic Egyptians, participated in heavenly observations. Their recordings were left in rock and artefacts thousands and tens of thousands of years ago. Whatever names they assigned to these celestial lights remain lost to us.

Interpretation of their recordings has at times been challenging but these cosmic documentations from our ancient past are finally being presented to consider.

Without scientific data, conclusions remain conjecture.

“although we live in a secular age”   Do we?

“If you were planning a business deal or a trade arrangement, Mercury and Saturn could be consulted for advice.” Yes, and this practice is still continued today. As Mercury is currently in retrograde an Astrologer may advise not to sign any contract. 

“Babylonian priest-astronomers morphed into the first astrologers.” Astrology is older than the science of Astronomy so this statement needs to be switched around. 

“Today astrology is, at least to most educated people, a palour game” Not true. it does depend on where you got your education, surely? Perhaps ask the eastern world people if it is a palour game.

Perhaps the most famous pick-up line at a cocktail party is “what’s your sign?” Only used by non Astrologers as the Sun is only one characteristic indicator, generally associated with the ego.

The planets were never considered Gods, Rulers, yes, but not Gods.

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Greg Matloff

Greg Matloff is a leading expert in possibilities for interstellar propulsion, especially near-Sun solar sail trajectories that might ultimately enable interstellar travel. He is also a professor with the Physics Department of New York City College of Technology, CUNY, a... Read More

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Astra Planeta – the 5 “wandering stars”!

The story of the astra planeta – the 5 “wandering stars”.

In this video we talk about the famous Astra Planeta – the 5 “wandering stars”!

We start of by generally outlining their family tree and from there we explore their various stories throughout Ancient Greece Mythology and History.

Afterwards, we look into how their existence has affected history (especially the Ancient Greek and the Roman history) and so forth.

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Mobile Stargazing

Mobile Astronomy: How We Name the Planets – Then and Now

Planets From Jupiter Orbit

Early November offers another chance to see all the planets: Mercury will soon reappear after sunset, and Saturn's just preparing to sink into the evening twilight. The ending of daylight savings time also means that star parties can be held before the junior astronomers' bedtimes. So it's nice to tour the solar system while we learn more about our own family of planets. 

In this edition of Mobile Stargazing, we'll look at how the planets got their names (and why some didn't stick), what they are called in other cultures and where the names for newly discovered objects in the far-off Kuiper Belt come from. [ Living on Other Planets: What Would It Be Like? ]

Spotting the planets

This November, most of the planets  can be found in the early evening sky — except for the biggest one, Jupiter, which is easy to spot in the east before sunrise. The word "planet" is derived from the Ancient Greek term "astēr planētēs," which means wandering star. True to their name, the naked-eye planets are exhibiting noticeable location changes this month. Your favorite astronomy app will tell you where they are on any day of the month. In the SkySafari 5 search menu, you can open the Sun & Planets list and enable highlight symbols for all the solar system objects. Tap the List Settings icon to bring up the highlighting check box. 

Swift Mercury is climbing away from the sun, toward a rendezvous with ringed Saturn near the end of the month. With visual magnitudes around 0.50 , both planets would be easy to see with the naked eye if they weren't sitting so low, embedded in the evening twilight. Glorious Venus and blood-red Mars are easy naked-eye objects in the early evening southwestern sky. King Jupiter is rising in the east before the sun. Its bright beacon is eye-catching, even as the sun rises. 

Uranus takes all night to cross the night sky in Pisces, while watery Neptune, fittingly in Aquarius for the next seven years, sets after midnight. Under very dark skies, Uranus is a naked-eye object, and Neptune is viewable with binoculars and small telescopes. Finally, distant dwarf planet Pluto requires a very large telescope to spot, although it, too, is in the early evening sky, between Capricornus and Sagittarius.

Naming the classical planets

With only one, or perhaps two, exceptions — more on this later — the names of the planets in our solar system come from Roman mythology. The bright, naked-eye planets were known in ancient times — sometimes by other names — but we have adopted the names that were used in the Roman period.

Because of its swift motion through the sky, Mercury was named for the winged messenger of the Roman gods. The beautifully bright planet Venus, sometimes referred to as the morning or evening star, was named after the Roman goddess of love, beauty and sexuality. Earth's name predates the Greek and Roman cultures, but the influences of those periods remain in the terms "Geo" and "Terra," respectively. 

No surprise, Mars, tinted reddish by the pervasive iron oxide that forms on its surface due to weathering, has been named for the Roman god of war. Jupiter, the largest of the planets, was named after the most prominent of the Roman gods, despite the fact that Venus frequently shines more brightly! Saturn was named for Jupiter's father, the Roman god of agriculture, long before anyone knew about the planet's spectacular ring system.

In China and the Far East, the naked-eye planets are named after the traditional five elements — wood (木), fire (火), earth (土), metal (金) and water (水). These are central to the ancient Eastern philosophies that brought us the concepts of Yin and Yang, and Feng Shui. I've listed them in order of importance, and that is how they have been assigned to the planets' visual appearance. Jupiter is木星 (Mùxīng), the Wood Star. Mars is 火星 (Huǒxīng), the Fire Star. Saturn is 土星 (Tǔxīng), the Earth Star. Venus is 金星 (Jīnxīng), the Metal or Gold Star. And Mercury is水星 (Shuǐxīng), the Water Star.

Good old planet Earth is called 地球 (Dìqiú), which literally translates as "ball of earth." The distant ice giant planets, unknown to ancient Chinese astronomers, have been named as follows: Uranus is 天王星 (Tiānwángxīng), or Sky King Star, and Neptune is 海王星 (Hǎiwángxīng), or Sea King Star. And Pluto is called冥王星(Míngwángxīng), or Underworld King Star.

Discovering the outer planets

Individuals using telescopes or photographic plates visually discovered and named the smaller and dimmer outer planets between 1781 and 1930. Uranus is bright enough to have been observed with the naked eye in ancient times, but it was always assumed to be a star because of its almost imperceptible motion through the stars. The Greek astronomer Hipparchus included it as a star in his early star atlas of 128 BC. Between 1690 and 1769, telescope users frequently saw and documented Uranus. But only in the spring of 1781 did British astronomer Sir William Herschel observe Uranus and recognize that it was not a star , because it had a noticeable disk or comet-like form and it changed position compared to the surrounding stars in his telescope's field of view. 

As the discoverer, Herschel initially proposed to name the new planet "Georgian Sidus," or "George's Planet," after King George III. But after many decades of debate by the international science community (during which even "Neptune" was proposed!), Johann Elert Bode proposed the classic and decidedly non-Anglic name Ouranos, a Latinized form of Uranus. In Greek mythology, Uranus was the god of the sky, father of Saturn, and grandfather of Jupiter. I know many astronomy teachers of giggling school kids who wish the name "George" had stuck!

If you ever have a chance to see Neptune in a telescope, you'll understand why the beautiful blue planet was named after the Roman god of the sea. In a remarkable coincidence, Galileo Galilei observed Neptune on Dec. 28, 1612, but sketched it as a small star sitting near Jupiter in his telescope's field of view. Set your astronomy app to that date, center it on Jupiter, and zoom in. There's blue Neptune, sitting about 14 arc-seconds (half the Moon's diameter) from Jupiter. Even more fascinating, advance the date a few days to Jan. 3 and Jupiter passes directly in front (or occults) the giant planet! It's not known whether Galileo observed that event.

In the middle decades of the 19th century, astronomers noted that Uranus was not orbiting precisely as expected, and it was theorized that the gravitational tug from an unknown planet was perturbing Uranus' path. By 1846, the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier had calculated an estimate of where the missing planet might be found. Le Verrier sent a letter requesting that Johann Gottfried Galle of the Berlin Observatory search that patch of sky and, on the evening of Sept. 23, 1846, the same day he received the letter, Galle discovered Neptune within 1 degree of Le Verrier's predicted location! For a few months, "Le Verrier's Planet" was proposed for the name, but that risked Uranus reverting to "Herschel"! Before the year was out, Le Verrier's preference, Neptune, was accepted internationally.

***TKTK[EMBED VIDEO: Cosmic Quest: Who Really Discovered Neptune? ]TKTK***

Pluto and beyond

Continued observations of Uranus into the 19th century revealed that Neptune alone was not enough to account for Uranus' perturbations, so astronomers began another search — for Planet X. In 1906, at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, founder Percival Lowell launched a search for the planet that was to last until his death in 1916. By this time, people conducted their searches by taking photographs through telescopes of candidate patches of sky on two or more nights. Later, they inspected the pairs of images for objects that changed position compared to the fixed stars. During that time, Pluto was sitting amid the stars of Orion in the Milky Way, meaning that the plates were densely packed with background stars. You can use your astronomy app to see where Pluto was located when it was discovered.

After more than a decade's pause, a newly hired young astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh resumed the search. On February 18, 1930, after only a year of searching, Tombaugh noted a possible moving object on photographic plates that were taken on Jan. 23 and Jan. 29 of that year. After further confirmation, the new planet was officially announced on March 13, 1930, and the naming process began. Percival Lowell's widow Constance proposed the names of Percival, Zeus and even her own, but the winning name, Pluto, was the idea of 11-year-old Venetia Burney. Once everyone realized that Pluto was not just the Greek god of the underworld, but that it also contained Percival Lowell's initials, it seemed fated to be.

In 2005, Caltech astronomer Mike Brown and his team discovered the object that later led to Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet status. They had theorized that additional small planets might be found in the Kuiper Belt , a region beyond the orbit of Neptune containing the icy remnants of the solar system's formation. The team, based at Palomar Observatory in California, used a semiautomated photographic search of the sky near the ecliptic to find an object orbiting the sun three times farther away than Pluto — at about 96 Astronomical Units. (An astronomical unit is the mean Earth-sun distance.)

To avoid being scooped by other teams performing similar searches, they adopted the nickname Xena for the object, after the popular TV show character. After the discovery was announced, people loved the name, especially after it was discovered that the new object had a moon, dubbed Gabrielle. Other names considered included Lila (similar to Brown's daughter's name) and Persephone (Pluto's mythological wife). Eventually, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is responsible for naming solar system objects and their surface features, opted for the somewhat less fun names Eris, the Greek goddess of strife and discord, and Dysnomia, the Greek goddess of lawlessness, for the planet and moon, respectively. 

After it was revealed that Eris was at least as large as Pluto, the IAU voted to create a new class of objects, the dwarf planets . They placed the asteroid Ceres (named for the Roman goddess of agriculture), Pluto, Eris and the other known Kuiper Belt objects in this class. As more objects are discovered and confirmed, they are added in, with names that are mainly drawn from deities of cultures around the world, such as Sedna (Inuit), Haumea (Hawaiian), Makemake (Rapa Nui), and Quaoar (Native American). [ Meet the Solar System's Dwarf Planets ]

Eris is so distant that it takes 557 years for it to orbit the sun. It will be many years before it moves out of its discovery constellation, Cetus. That region of sky is visible in late autumn every year. You can search for Eris in your astronomy app to see where it is in the sky. The better astronomy apps will also allow you to search for the other major Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) and new ones as they are discovered.

The discovery of more KBOs, and the characterization of their orbits, has led to another exciting planet search. A number of the KBO orbital planes are biased in a particular and unexpected direction. Earlier this year, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin published a mathematical model that suggests that a large planet, 10 times the mass of Earth and orbiting between 200 and 1,200 AU from the sun, would explain the observations. And recent KBO discoveries have reinforced this model. Now the Caltech team, and others, are in a race to search the sky for this very distant new planet, dubbed Planet Nine . Who knows? Perhaps a female astronomer will discover this one. Stay tuned!

Going beyond

We've only scratched the surface of naming objects in the solar system. For example, the moons of each planet follow a proscribed theme. War-like Mars is orbited by Phobos and Deimos, or "Fear and Dread." Jupiter's satellites are named for the god's wives, lovers, offspring and so on. The International Astronomical Union has a nice page of information about naming themes at http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Planets . The organization is also responsible for the names that are given to asteroids, and to newly discovered exoplanets. But that's another story for a future edition of Mobile Stargazing. In the meantime, keep looking up!

Editor's note: Chris Vaughan is an astronomy public outreach and education specialist, and operator of the historic 1.88-meter David Dunlap Observatory telescope. You can reach him via email , and follow him on Twitter as @astrogeoguy , as well as on Facebook and Tumblr .

This article was provided by Simulation Curriculum , the leader in space science curriculum solutions and the makers of the SkySafari app for Android and iOS. Follow SkySafari on Twitter @SkySafariAstro . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

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Chris Vaughan

Chris Vaughan, aka @astrogeoguy, is an award-winning astronomer and Earth scientist with Astrogeo.ca, based near Toronto, Canada. He is a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and hosts their Insider's Guide to the Galaxy webcasts on YouTube. An avid visual astronomer, Chris operates the historic 74˝ telescope at the David Dunlap Observatory. He frequently organizes local star parties and solar astronomy sessions, and regularly delivers presentations about astronomy and Earth and planetary science, to students and the public in his Digital Starlab portable planetarium. His weekly Astronomy Skylights blog at  www.AstroGeo.ca  is enjoyed by readers worldwide. He is a regular contributor to SkyNews magazine, writes the monthly Night Sky Calendar for Space.com in cooperation with Simulation Curriculum, the creators of Starry Night and SkySafari, and content for several popular astronomy apps. His book "110 Things to See with a Telescope", was released in 2021.

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IMAGES

  1. The Ancient Greek Stars Lighting Up Our Night Skies

    wandering star in ancient greek

  2. "Haemisphaerium stellatum boreale antiquum" Full hemispheric map of the

    wandering star in ancient greek

  3. 10 Legendary Constellations and the Stories Behind Them (According to

    wandering star in ancient greek

  4. Part of a lost, ancient star catalog has now been found

    wandering star in ancient greek

  5. Wędrująca gwiazda zatrzęsła pradawnym Układem Słonecznym

    wandering star in ancient greek

  6. Ancient Greece Reloaded

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VIDEO

  1. The wandering wombs of ancient Greece

  2. GREEK MYTHOLOGY CATEGORY

  3. Unveiling the Secrets of Ancient Sky The Myth behind Planets

  4. The Greek Mythology

  5. THE WANDERING STAR TAROT WALKTHRU

  6. Wandering Star

COMMENTS

  1. Planetae

    The planetae (Ancient Greek: πλανήται, romanized: planetai, Latin: planetae, lit. 'wanderers', or Ancient Greek: πλανωμένοι ἀστέρες, romanized: planomenoi asteres, Latin: stellae errantes, lit. 'wandering stars'), were the five naked-eye planets known to ancient Greek and Roman astronomers, who assigned them a variety of names, associated them with different gods, and ...

  2. Ancient Greek Astronomy and Cosmology

    The Wandering and Fixed Stars in the Celestial Region. In contrast to the terrestrial, the celestial region of the heavens had a fundamentally different nature. Looking at the night sky the ancient Greeks found two primary kinds of celestial objects; the fixed stars and the wandering stars. Think of the night's sky.

  3. greek

    The Greek word behind the English 'wandering star' is planetes which is the word, both ancient and modern, for the heavenly bodies which behave other than the stars, their course being very perplexing until it becomes evident that they are circling the sun.. Their orientation is not fixed in the heavens, nor fixed according to the earth. They wander and they circle a ball of fire.

  4. Classical planet

    A classical planet is an astronomical object that is visible to the naked eye and moves across the sky and its backdrop of fixed stars (the common stars which seem still in contrast to the planets). Visible to humans on Earth there are seven classical planets (the seven luminaries).They are from brightest to dimmest: the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Saturn.

  5. ASTRA PLANETA

    The Astra Planeta were the ancient Greek gods of the five wandering stars. They were named Phaenon (planet Saturn), Phaethon (planet Jupiter), Pyroeis (planet Mars), Eosphorus (planet Venus) and Stilbon (planet Mercury). In ancient Greek vase painting they were depicted as youths diving into the earth-encircling river Oceanus before the rising chariot of the sun-god Helius.

  6. How Did We Discover the Planets?

    For this reason, the Greeks referred to the planets as wandering stars. Our word "planet" comes from the Greek word planetes, ... The ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle had previously introduced the idea that the heavens move in perfect circles. However, their theories were unable to account for some of the behaviors of the planets ...

  7. Ancient Greek astronomy

    Ancient Greek astronomy is the astronomy written in the Greek language during classical antiquity. ... Most of the names of the stars, ... (quoted in Lloyd 1970, p. 84). Plato proposed that the seemingly chaotic wandering motions of the planets could be explained by combinations of uniform circular motions centered on a spherical Earth, a novel ...

  8. Copernicus' revolution and Galileo's vision: our changing view of the

    Indeed "planet" is derived from the Ancient Greek for "wandering star". The motion of Mars over many weeks. And planetary motion isn't simple. Planets appear to speed up and slow down as ...

  9. Early Astronomy in the University of Michigan Collections

    Ancient Greek concepts and methods developed over many centuries, from the seventh century BCE when we have the first evidence, mostly from literary texts that mention specific stars or constellations, to the second century CE when Greek astronomy reached its highest point with Ptolemy. ... Planets or wandering stars, however, add to the same ...

  10. The Stars in Ancient Greece

    Having set aside the wandering stars, which included the sun and moon, and other occasionally periodic oddities like comets and meteors, the ancients were left with a vast number of dots in the sky, which remained in the same position relative to one another. ... The Stars in Ancient Greece. In: Boutsikas, E., McCluskey, S.C., Steele, J. (eds ...

  11. The Storied History of the Word 'Planet'

    The word istypically traced back to the ancient Greeks, who believed the Earth wasstationary at the center of the universe while objects in the sky revolvedaround it. The Greek term asters ...

  12. Strong's Greek: 4107. πλανήτης (planétés) -- a wanderer

    HELPS Word-studies. Cognate: 4107 planḗtēs (a masculine noun derived from 4105 /planáō, "to wander") - properly, a wandering star (planet); (figuratively) a false teacher, operating without moral compass and exploiting other aimless people - i.e. prompting them to also stray from God's circle of safety (sound doctrine). See 4105 ...

  13. Astra Planeta

    The Astra Planeta were a group of five Greek gods - "The Wandering Stars". The ancient Greek astronomers knew of five planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the star-like planets visible to the naked eye. They called these planets "wanderers", as when seen with the naked eye, they seemed to wander across the night sky ...

  14. The difference between ᾰ̓́στρον (ástron) and ἀστήρ (astḗr) in Ancient Greek

    For context: the Ancient Greeks at the time of Aristotle believed in a geocentric model of the universe whereby the "fixed stars" were affixed to a 'celestial sphere' (a sort of hollow sphere moving around the Earth at a distance), hence why they appeared to move in sync with each other, whilst the "wandering stars" ("planets") were each ...

  15. Wandering Sky Gods: The Personification of ...

    Instead, they carefully observe the shifting positions of those wandering star-like objects that they call "planets." ... In 2012, a student at Cambridge University identified what he suspected was an ancient Greek star map hidden behind text in a medieval codex. Compiled with astronomical data from the 2nd century AD,...

  16. Astra Planeta

    In this video we talk about the famous Astra Planeta - the 5 "wandering stars"! We start of by generally outlining their family tree and from there we explore their various stories throughout Ancient Greece Mythology and History.

  17. PHAENON (Phainon)

    Phaenon was the ancient Greek god of wandering star (aster planetos) Cronion, the planet Saturn, or else Dios, the planet Jupiter. He was either a son of the heavenly gods Astraeus (Starry) and Eos (Dawn), or a handsome youth crafted by the Titan Prometheus and placed amongst the stars by Zeus.

  18. Copernicus' revolution and Galileo's vision, in pictures

    Indeed "planet" is derived from the ancient Greek for "wandering star." The motion of Mars over many weeks. And planetary motion isn't simple. Planets appear to speed up and slow down as ...

  19. Planets

    For the ancient Greeks (before the age of telescopes) the night sky was thought to consist of two very similar components: fixed stars, which remained motionless in relation to each other, and "wandering stars" (Ancient Greek: asteres planet-ai), which moved relative to the fixed stars over the course of the year.

  20. Definition of planet

    The definition of the term planet has changed several times since the word was coined by the ancient Greeks. Greek astronomers employed the term ἀστέρες πλανῆται (asteres planetai), 'wandering stars', for star-like objects which apparently moved over the sky.Over the millennia, the term has included a variety of different celestial bodies, from the Sun and the Moon to ...

  21. Mobile Astronomy: How We Name the Planets

    The word "planet" is derived from the Ancient Greek term "astēr planētēs," which means wandering star. True to their name, the naked-eye planets are exhibiting noticeable location changes this ...

  22. PYROEIS

    Astra Planeta the star-gods, Athenian red-figure krater C5th B.C., British Museum PYROEIS was the god of the wandering star (aster planetos) Areios, the planet Mars.His name was derived from the Greek word pyra "fire", so-named because of his reddish tinge. He was also named Mesonyx the Midnight Star.

  23. Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture

    From the Archaic period to the Greco-Roman age, the figure of the wanderer held great significance in ancient Greece. In the first comprehensive study devoted to this theme, Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture unearths the many meanings attached to this practice over the centuries. Employing a broad range of literary and philosophical texts, Silvia Montiglio demonstrates how wandering has been ...