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Classical planets

Main article: Classical planet

The origins of the planetary symbols can be found in the attributes given to classical deities. The Roman planisphere of Bianchini (2nd century, currently in the Louvre, inv. Ma 540)⁴ shows the seven planets represented by portraits of the seven corresponding gods, each a bust with a halo and an iconic object or dress, as follows: Mercury has a caduceus and a winged cap; Venus has a necklace and a shining mirror; Mars has a war-helmet and a spear; Jupiter has a laurel crown and a staff; Saturn has a conical headdress and a scythe; the Sun has rays emanating from his head; and the Moon has a crescent atop her head.

The written symbols for Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn have been traced to forms found in late Greek papyri.⁵⁶

Early forms are also found in medieval Byzantine codices which preserve horoscopes.⁷

A diagram in the astronomical compendium by Johannes Kamateros (12th century) closely resembles the 11th-century forms shown above, with the Sun represented by a circle with a single ray, Jupiter by the letter zeta (the initial of Zeus, Jupiter's counterpart in Greek mythology), Mars by a round shield in front of a diagonal spear, and the remaining classical planets by symbols resembling the modern ones, though without the crosses seen in modern versions of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. These crosses first appear in the late 15th or early 16th century. According to Maunder, the addition of crosses appears to be "an attempt to give a savour of Christianity to the symbols of the old pagan gods."⁸ The modern forms of the classical planetary symbols are found in a woodcut of the seven planets in a Latin translation of Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi's De Magnis Coniunctionibus printed at Venice in 1506, represented as the corresponding gods riding chariots.⁹

Earth symbol

Main article: Earth symbol

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Earth symbols.

Earth is not one of the classical planets, as "planets" by definition were "wandering stars" as seen from Earth's surface. Earth's status as planet is a consequence of heliocentrism in the 16th century. Nonetheless, there is a pre-heliocentric symbol for the world, now used as a planetary symbol for the Earth. This is a circle crossed by two lines, horizontal and vertical, representing the world divided by four rivers into the four quarters of the world (often translated as the four "corners" of the world): . A variant, now obsolete, had only the horizontal line: .¹⁰

A medieval European symbol for the world – the globus cruciger, (the globe surmounted by a Christian cross) – is also used as a planetary symbol; it resembles an inverted symbol for Venus.

The planetary symbols for Earth are encoded in Unicode at U+1F728 🜨 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR VERDIGRIS and U+2641 ♁ EARTH.

Classical planets

Further information: Classical planets and Days of the week

Moon

Further information: Crescent and Astronomical symbols § Symbols for the Sun and Moon

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Luna symbols. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crescent moon symbols.

The crescent shape has been used to represent the Moon since antiquity. In classical antiquity, it is worn by lunar deities (Selene/Luna, Artemis/Diana, Men, etc.) either on the head or behind the shoulders, with its horns pointing upward. The representation of the moon as a simple crescent with the horns pointing to the side (as a heraldic crescent increscent or crescent decrescent) is attested from late Classical times.

The same symbol can be used in a different context not for the Moon itself but for a lunar phase, as part of a sequence of four symbols for "new moon" (U+1F311 🌑︎), "waxing" (U+263D ☽︎), "full moon" (U+1F315 🌕︎) and "waning" (U+263E ☾︎).

Mercury

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mercury symbols.

The symbol ☿ for Mercury is a caduceus (a staff entwined with two serpents), a symbol associated with Mercury / Hermes throughout antiquity. Some time after the 11th century, a cross was added to the bottom of the staff to Christianize the symbol.¹¹

The symbol ☿ was once the designated symbol for hermaphroditic or 'perfect' flowers,¹² but botanists now use ⚥ for these.¹³ A related usage is for the 'worker' or 'neuter' sex among social insects that is neither male nor (due to its lack of reproductive capacity) fully female, such as worker bees.¹⁴ More recently, it has been used to indicate intersex, transgender, or non-binary gender.¹⁵

The Unicode codepoint is U+263F ☿ MERCURY.

Venus

The Venus symbol, ♀, consists of a circle with a small cross below it. It is believed to be a depiction of the hand-mirror of the goddess, which may also explain Venus's association with the planetary metal copper, as mirrors in antiquity were made of polished copper,¹⁶¹⁷ though this is not certain.¹⁸ The addition of the cross is relatively recent – in the Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri 235, the symbols for Venus and Mercury did not have the cross on the bottom stem,¹⁹ and Venus appears without the cross (⚲) in Johannes Kamateros' 12th-century Compendium of Astrology.²⁰

In botany and biology, the symbol for Venus is used to represent the female sex, alongside the symbol for Mars representing the male sex,²¹ following a convention introduced by Linnaeus in the 1750s.²²²³

Unicode encodes the symbol as U+2640 ♀ FEMALE SIGN, in the Miscellaneous Symbols block.²⁴

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Venus symbols.

Sun

Further information: Solar symbol and Symbols for the Sun and Moon

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sun symbols.

The modern astronomical symbol for the Sun, the circumpunct (U+2609 ☉ SUN), was first used in the Renaissance. It possibly represents Apollo's golden shield with a boss.

Bianchini's planisphere, produced in the 2nd century, shows a circlet with rays radiating from it.²⁵²⁶ In late Classical times, the Sun is attested as a circle with a single ray. A diagram in Johannes Kamateros' 12th century Compendium of Astrology shows the same symbol.²⁷ This older symbol is encoded by Unicode as U+1F71A 🜚 ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR GOLD in the Alchemical Symbols block. Both symbols have been used alchemically for gold, as have more elaborate symbols showing a disk with multiple rays or even a face.

Mars

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mars symbols.

The Mars symbol, ♂, is a depiction of a circle with an arrow emerging from it, pointing at an angle to the upper right in Europe and to the upper left in India.²⁸²⁹ It is also the old and obsolete symbol for iron in alchemy. In zoology and botany, it is used to represent the male sex (alongside the astrological symbol for Venus representing the female sex),³⁰ following a convention introduced by Linnaeus in the 1750s.³¹

The symbol dates from at latest the 11th century, at which time it was an arrow across or through a circle, thought to represent the shield and spear of the god Mars; in the medieval form, for example in the 12th-century Compendium of Astrology by Johannes Kamateros, the spear is drawn across the shield.³² The Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri show a different symbol,³³ perhaps simply a spear.³⁴

Its Unicode codepoint is U+2642 ♂ MALE SIGN (♂).

Jupiter

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jupiter symbols.

The symbol for Jupiter, ♃, was originally a Greek zeta, Ζ, with a stroke indicating that it is an abbreviation (for Zeus, the Greek equivalent of Roman Jupiter).

Its Unicode codepoint is U+2643 ♃ JUPITER.

Saturn

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saturn symbols.

Salmasius and earlier attestations show that the symbol for Saturn, ♄, derives from the initial letters (Kappa, rho) of its ancient Greek name Κρόνος (Kronos), with a stroke to indicate an abbreviation.³⁵ By the time of Kamateros (12th century), the symbol had been reduced to a shape similar to a lower-case letter eta η, with the abbreviation stroke surviving (if at all) in the curl on the bottom-right end.

Its Unicode codepoint is U+2644 ♄ SATURN.

Modern discoveries

Uranus

The symbols for Uranus were created shortly after its discovery in 1781. One symbol, ⛢, invented by J. G. Köhler and refined by Bode, was intended to represent the newly discovered metal platinum; since platinum, commonly called white gold, was found by chemists mixed with iron, the symbol for platinum combines the alchemical symbols for iron, ♂, and gold, ☉.³⁶³⁷ Gold and iron are the planetary metals for the Sun and Mars, and so share their symbols. Several orientations were suggested, but an upright arrow is now universal.

Another symbol, , was suggested by Lalande in 1784. In a letter to Herschel, Lalande described it as "a globe surmounted by the first letter of your name".³⁸ The platinum symbol tends to be used by astronomers, and the monogram by astrologers.³⁹

For use in computer systems, the symbols are encoded U+26E2 ⛢ ASTRONOMICAL SYMBOL FOR URANUS and U+2645 ♅ URANUS.

Neptune

Several symbols were proposed for Neptune to accompany the suggested names for the planet. Claiming the right to name his discovery, Urbain Le Verrier originally proposed to name the planet for the Roman god Neptune⁴⁰ and the symbol of a trident,⁴¹ while falsely stating that this had been officially approved by the French Bureau des Longitudes.⁴² In October, he sought to name the planet Leverrier, after himself, and he had loyal support in this from the observatory director, François Arago,⁴³ who in turn proposed a new symbol for the planet, .⁴⁴ However, this suggestion met with resistance outside France,⁴⁵ and French almanacs quickly reintroduced the name Herschel for Uranus, after that planet's discoverer Sir William Herschel, and Leverrier for the new planet,⁴⁶ though it was used by anglophone institutions.⁴⁷ Professor James Pillans of the University of Edinburgh defended the name Janus for the new planet, and proposed a key for its symbol.⁴⁸ Meanwhile, Struve presented the name Neptune on December 29, 1846, to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences.⁴⁹ In August 1847, the Bureau des Longitudes announced its decision to follow prevailing astronomical practice and adopt the choice of Neptune, with Arago refraining from participating in this decision.⁵⁰ The planetary symbol was Neptune's trident, with the handle stylized either as a crossed , following Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and the asteroids, or as an orb , following the symbols for Uranus, Earth, and Mars.⁵¹ The crossed variant is the more common today.

For use in computer systems, the symbols are encoded as U+2646 ♆ NEPTUNE and U+2BC9 ⯉ NEPTUNE FORM TWO.

Pluto

Pluto was almost universally considered a planet from its discovery in 1930 until its re-classification as a dwarf planet (planetoid) by the IAU in 2006. Planetary geologists⁵² and astrologers continue to treat it as a planet. The original planetary symbol for Pluto was , a monogram of the letters P and L. Astrologers generally use a bident with an orb. NASA has used the bident symbol since Pluto's reclassification. These symbols are encoded as U+2647 ♇ PLUTO and U+2BD3 ⯓ PLUTO FORM TWO.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pluto symbols.

Minor planets

In the 19th century, planetary symbols for the major asteroids were also in use, including 1 Ceres (a reaper's sickle, encoded U+26B3 ⚳ CERES), 2 Pallas (a lance, U+26B4 ⚴ PALLAS) and 3 Juno (a sceptre, encoded U+26B5 ⚵ JUNO). Encke (1850) used symbols for 5 Astraea, 6 Hebe, 7 Iris, 8 Flora and 9 Metis in the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch.⁵³

In the late 20th century, astrologers abbreviated the symbol for 4 Vesta (the sacred fire of Vesta, encoded U+26B6 ⚶ VESTA),⁵⁴ and introduced new symbols for 5 Astraea (, a stylised % sign, shift-5 on QWERTY keyboards for asteroid 5), 10 Hygiea encoded U+2BDA ⯚ HYGIEA)⁵⁵ and for 2060 Chiron, discovered in 1977 (a key, U+26B7 ⚷ CHIRON).⁵⁶ Chiron's symbol was adapted as additional centaurs were discovered; symbols for 5145 Pholus and 7066 Nessus have been encoded in Unicode.⁵⁷ The abbreviated Vesta symbol is now universal, and the astrological symbol for Pluto has been used astronomically for Pluto as a dwarf planet.⁵⁸

In the early 21st century, symbols for the trans-Neptunian dwarf planets have been given Unicode codepoints, particularly Eris (the hand of Eris, ⯰, but also ⯱), Sedna, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar and Orcus which are in Unicode. All (except Eris, for which the hand of Eris is a traditional Discordian symbol) were devised by Denis Moskowitz, a software engineer in Massachusetts.⁵⁹⁶⁰

Other symbols have also been invented by Moskowitz, for some smaller TNOs as well as many planetary moons. (Charon in particular coincidentally matches a symbol already existing in Unicode as an astrological Pluto.) However, these have not been broadly adopted.⁶¹⁶²

Unicode characters for minor planets

			Code point
Ceres		Media related to Ceres symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+26B3 ⚳ CERES.63
Pallas		Media related to (2) Pallas symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+26B4 ⚴ PALLAS.64
Juno		Media related to (3) Juno symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+26B5 ⚵ JUNO.65
Vesta		Media related to (4) Vesta symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+26B6 ⚶ VESTA.66
Hygiea		Media related to (10) Hygiea symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+2BDA ⯚ HYGIEA.67
Chiron		Media related to Chiron symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+26B7 ⚷ CHIRON.68
Pholus		Media related to Pholus symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+2BDB ⯛ PHOLUS
Nessus		Media related to Nessus symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+2BDC ⯜ NESSUS
Orcus		Media related to Orcus symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+1F77F 🝿 ORCUS
Haumea		Media related to Haumea symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+1F77B 🝻 HAUMEA
Quaoar		Media related to Quaoar symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+1F77E 🝾 QUAOAR
Makemake		Media related to Makemake symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+1F77C 🝼 MAKEMAKE
Gonggong		Media related to Gonggong symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+1F77D 🝽 GONGGONG
Eris		Media related to Five-fingered hand of Eris at Wikimedia Commons	U+2BF0 ⯰ ERIS FORM ONE
		Media related to Eris astrological symbol at Wikimedia Commons	U+2BF1 ⯱ ERIS FORM TWO(used by astrologer Henry Seltzer)
Sedna		Media related to Sedna symbols at Wikimedia Commons	U+2BF2 ⯲ SEDNA

Historical symbols

From 1845 to 1855, many symbols were created for newly discovered asteroids. But by 1851, the spate of discoveries had led to a general abandonment of these symbols in favour of numbering all asteroids instead.⁶⁹

See also

• Astronomy portal
• Stars portal
• Spaceflight portal
• Outer space portal
• Solar System portal

• Astrological symbol
• Astronomical symbol
• Gender symbol
• Classical planets in Western alchemy

Footnotes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Planet symbols. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alchemical symbols.

References

1. The IAU Style Manual (PDF). 1989. p. 27. http://www.iau.org/static/publications/stylemanual1989.pdf ↩

2. In order to have one-letter abbreviations for every planet, the IAU recommends 'H' (Hermes) for Mercury and 'M' for Mars. In the unlikely event a satellite were ever discovered around Mercury, its official abbreviation would be H1. /wiki/Hermes ↩

3. In order to have one-letter abbreviations for every planet, the IAU recommends 'H' (Hermes) for Mercury and 'M' for Mars. In the unlikely event a satellite were ever discovered around Mercury, its official abbreviation would be H1. /wiki/Hermes ↩

4. "plaque; planisphère de Bianchini". Paris: Louvre. Retrieved 2022-07-23. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010278829 ↩

5. Jones, Alexander (1999). Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus: (P. Oxy. 4133-4300a). American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-233-7. 978-0-87169-233-7 ↩

6. "It is now possible to trace the medieval symbols for at least four of the five planets to forms that occur in some of the latest papyrus horoscopes ([ P.Oxy. ] 4272, 4274, 4275 [...]). Mercury's is a stylized caduceus. ... The ideal form of Mars' symbol is uncertain, and perhaps not related to the later circle with an arrow through it." — Jones (1999)[3] /wiki/Oxyrhynchus_Papyri ↩

7. Neugebauer, Otto (1975). A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy. pp. 788–789. ISBN 0-387-06995-X. 0-387-06995-X ↩

8. Maunder (1934) ↩

9. Maunder (1934:239) ↩

10. "Solar System". The English Cyclopaedia of Arts and Sciences. Vol. VII–VIII. 1861. ↩

11. Jones, Alexander (1999). Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus: (P. Oxy. 4133-4300a). American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-233-7. 978-0-87169-233-7 ↩

12. Stearn, William T. (May 1962). "The origin of the male and female symbols of biology" (PDF). Taxon. 11 (4): 109–113. doi:10.2307/1217734. ISSN 0040-0262. JSTOR 1217734. /wiki/William_T._Stearn ↩

13. Simpson, Niki (2010). "Botanical symbols: A new symbol set for new images". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 162 (2): 117–129. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.01021.x. https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/162/2/117/2418432 ↩

14. Bingham, C. T. (1903). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Hymenoptera, Vol. II. Ants and Cuckoo-Wasps. London: Taylor and Francis. p. v. https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10943626 ↩

15. van den Akker, Olga B.A. (2012). Reproductive Health Psychology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-119-96747-7 – via Google Books. 978-1-119-96747-7 ↩

16. Rehder, Dieter (2011). Chemistry in Space: From interstellar matter to the origin of life. Wiley-VCH. ↩

17. "The symbol, the stylized hand mirror of the Goddess Venus, also represents femininity. It has also been used for the element copper: Mirrors had been manufactured from polished copper." — Rehder (2011)[12] /wiki/Speculum_metal ↩

18. Jones, Alexander (1999). Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus: (P. Oxy. 4133-4300a). American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-233-7. 978-0-87169-233-7 ↩

19. Jones, Alexander (1999). Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus: (P. Oxy. 4133-4300a). American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-233-7. 978-0-87169-233-7 ↩

20. Maunder, A.S.D. (1934). "The origin of the symbols of the planets". The Observatory. 57: 238–247. Bibcode:1934Obs....57..238M. /wiki/Bibcode_(identifier) ↩

21. Schott, G.D. (December 2005). "Sex symbols ancient and modern: their origins and iconography on the pedigree". The British Medical Journal. 331 (7531): 1509–1510. doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1509. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 1322246. PMID 16373733. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1322246 ↩

22. Stearn, William T. (May 1962). "The origin of the male and female symbols of biology" (PDF). Taxon. 11 (4): 109–113. doi:10.2307/1217734. ISSN 0040-0262. JSTOR 1217734. /wiki/William_T._Stearn ↩

23. "In his Systema Naturae (Leyden, 1735) he [Linnaeus] used them with their traditional associations for metals. Their first biological use is in the Linnaean dissertation Plantae hybridae xxx sistit J.J. Haartman (1751) where in discussing hybrid plants Linnaeus denoted the supposed female parent species by the sign ♀, the male parent by the sign ♂, the hybrid by ☿: 'matrem signo ♀, patrem ♂ & plantam hybridam ☿ designavero'. In subsequent publications he retained the signs ♀ and ♂ for male and female individuals but discarded ☿ for hybrids; the last are now indicated by the multiplication sign ×." "Linnaeus's first general use of the signs of ♀ and ♂ was in his Species Plantarum (1753) written between 1746 and 1752 and surveying concisely the whole plant kingdom as then known. ... In order to save space Linnaeus employed the astronomical symbols of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and the Sun to denote woody, herbaceous perennial, biennial and annual plants respectively [ed.: the orbital periods of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Earth about the Sun are 29, 12, 2, and 1 year] ... and Mercury, Mars and Venus for the hermaphrodite, male and female conditions" ... "Later, in his Mantissa Plantarum (1767) and Mantissa Plantarum altera (1771), Linnaeus regularly used ♂, ♀ and ☿ for male, female and hermaphrodite flowers respectively. Their aptness made them easy to remember and their convenience led to their general acceptance in zoology as well as botany. Koelreuter found them especially convenient when recording his experiments in hybridization; as late as 1778 he used the sign ☿ to denote a hybrid plant." — Stearn (1962)[8] /wiki/Carl_Linnaeus ↩

24. Glossed in the official Unicode code chart as " = Venus = alchemical symbol for copper → 1F469 👩 woman → 1F6BA 🚺 women's symbol". [15] /wiki/%F0%9F%91%A9 ↩

25. Maunder (1934) ↩

26. "plaque; planisphère de Bianchini". Paris: Louvre. Retrieved 2022-07-23. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010278829 ↩

27. Neugebauer, Otto; Van Hoesen, H.B. (1987). Greek Horoscopes. pp. 1, 159, 163. ↩

28. Maunder, A.S.D. (August 1934). "The origin of the symbols of the planets". The Observatory. Vol. 57. pp. 238–247. Bibcode:1934Obs....57..238M. /wiki/The_Observatory_(journal) ↩

29. Evans, James (1998). The History & Practice of Ancient Astronomy. Oxford University Press/U.S. p. 350. ISBN 0-19-509539-1. 0-19-509539-1 ↩

30. Schott, G.D. (December 2005). "Sex symbols ancient and modern: their origins and iconography on the pedigree". The British Medical Journal. 331 (7531): 1509–1510. doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1509. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 1322246. PMID 16373733. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1322246 ↩

31. Stearn, William T. (May 1962). "The origin of the male and female symbols of biology" (PDF). Taxon. 11 (4): 109–113. doi:10.2307/1217734. ISSN 0040-0262. JSTOR 1217734. /wiki/William_T._Stearn ↩

32. Neugebauer, Otto; Van Hoesen, H.B. (1987). Greek Horoscopes. pp. 1, 159, 163. ↩

33. Jones, Alexander (1999). Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus: (P. Oxy. 4133-4300a). American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-233-7. 978-0-87169-233-7 ↩

34. "plaque; planisphère de Bianchini". Paris: Louvre. Retrieved 2022-07-23. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010278829 ↩

35. Stearn, William T. (May 1962). "The origin of the male and female symbols of biology" (PDF). Taxon. 11 (4): 109–113. doi:10.2307/1217734. ISSN 0040-0262. JSTOR 1217734. /wiki/William_T._Stearn ↩

36. Bode, J.E. (1784). Von dem neu entdeckten Planeten [On the newly discovered planets] (in German). Beim Verfaszer. pp. 95–96. Bibcode:1784vdne.book.....B – via Internet Archive. /wiki/Johann_Elert_Bode ↩

37. Gould, B.A. (1850). Report on the history of the discovery of Neptune. Smithsonian Institution. p. 5 – via Archive.org. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_uyANAQAAIAAJ ↩

38. Herschel, Francisca (August 1917). "The meaning of the symbol H+o for the planet Uranus". The Observatory. Vol. 40. p. 306. Bibcode:1917Obs....40..306H. /wiki/The_Observatory_(journal) ↩

39. Iancu, Laurentiu (14 August 2009). Proposal to encode the astronomical symbol for Uranus (PDF). unicode.org (Report). The Unicode Consortium. L2009/09300. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09300-uranus.pdf ↩

40. Littmann, Mark; Standish, E.M. (2004). Planets Beyond: Discovering the outer Solar System. Courier Dover Publications. p. 50. ISBN 0-486-43602-0. 0-486-43602-0 ↩

41. Pillans, James (1847). "Ueber den Namen des neuen Planeten" [Regarding the names of the new planets]. Astronomische Nachrichten (in German). 25 (26): 389–392. Bibcode:1847AN.....25..389.. doi:10.1002/asna.18470252602 – via Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=yOAzAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA39-IA11 ↩

42. Littmann, Mark; Standish, E.M. (2004). Planets Beyond: Discovering the outer Solar System. Courier Dover Publications. p. 50. ISBN 0-486-43602-0. 0-486-43602-0 ↩

43. Baum, Richard; Sheehan, William (2003). In Search of Planet Vulcan: The ghost in Newton's clockwork universe. Basic Books. pp. 109–110. ISBN 0-7382-0889-2. 0-7382-0889-2 ↩

44. Schumacher, H.C. (1846). "Name des Neuen Planeten" [Names of the new planets]. Astronomische Nachrichten (in German). 25: 81–82. Bibcode:1846AN.....25...81L. doi:10.1002/asna.18470250603. https://books.google.com/books?id=wlc_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA89 ↩

45. Baum, Richard; Sheehan, William (2003). In Search of Planet Vulcan: The ghost in Newton's clockwork universe. Basic Books. pp. 109–110. ISBN 0-7382-0889-2. 0-7382-0889-2 ↩

46. Gingerich, Owen (October 1958). The naming of Uranus and Neptune (Report). ASP Leaflets. Vol. 8. Astronomical Society of the Pacific. pp. 9–15. Bibcode:1958ASPL....8....9G. /wiki/Astronomical_Society_of_the_Pacific ↩

47. "[title not cited]". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 1: 287 ff, 334 ff. 1848. /wiki/Proceedings_of_the_American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences ↩

48. Pillans, James (1847). "Ueber den Namen des neuen Planeten" [Regarding the names of the new planets]. Astronomische Nachrichten (in German). 25 (26): 389–392. Bibcode:1847AN.....25..389.. doi:10.1002/asna.18470252602 – via Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=yOAzAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA39-IA11 ↩

49. Hind, J.R. (1847). "Second report of proceedings in the Cambridge Observatory relating to the new planet (Neptune)". Astronomische Nachrichten. 25 (21): 309–314. Bibcode:1847AN.....25..309.. doi:10.1002/asna.18470252102 – via zenodo.org. https://zenodo.org/record/1424623 ↩

50. Connaissance des Temps: ou des mouvementes célestes, à l'usage des astronomes [Information on timing: or celestial movements, for the use of astronomers]. Connaissance des Temps (in French). Vol. 1847. Paris, France: Bureau des Longitudes. 1847. p. [unnumbered front matter]. https://books.google.com/books?id=5q03AAAAMAAJ&pg=PP9 ↩

51. "Solar System". The English Cyclopaedia of Arts and Sciences. Vol. VII–VIII. 1861. ↩

52. Metzger, Philip T.; Grundy, W.M.; Sykes, Mark V.; Stern, Alan; Bell, James F. III; Detelich, Charlene E.; et al. (March 2022). "Moons are planets: Scientific usefulness versus cultural teleology in the taxonomy of planetary science". Icarus. 374: 114768. arXiv:2110.15285. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114768. ISSN 0019-1035. S2CID 240071005. /wiki/Philip_T._Metzger ↩

53. Encke, J.F., ed. (1850). Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch für 1853. Berlin, DE. p. viii.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) /wiki/Johann_Franz_Encke ↩

54. Faulks, David (9 May 2006). Proposal to add some western astrology symbols to the UCS (PDF). unicode.org (Report). The Unicode Consortium. p. 4. L2006/06171. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2017. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06171-astroprop.pdf ↩

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