Kenntth McGriff in, aged 14, of Providence, Utah for his question:
How did the planets get named?
Almanacs give information about the phases of the moon. Some give added information about the planets. In these, you may run across strange signs ‑ circles with crosses and arrows, tridents and sickles. These signs are shorthand for the names of the planets. Some of them are very old indeed. They were used as shorthand on the charts of ancient stargazers. And they give us clues as to how the planets were first named.
Nowadays we know that the sun has a family of nine planets. But only six of them, including the earth, were known before the invention of the telescope. For the faraway planets are too dim to be seen with the naked eye. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were named by the Romans.
These planets were named for Roman gods and a goddess. Mercury was the messenger and sort of handy‑man for the Roman gods. He carried a wand called a caduceus. Two snakes were twined about it. This caduceus is represented in the sign for Mercury in the almanac. It is shown as a circle with two horns at the top and a little cross below. Venus was the Roman goddess of beauty. Her planet sign is a circle with a little cross handle at the bottom ‑ naturally a looking glass;
The old sign for Mars is a circle with an arrow attached. It is the sword and spear you would expect from the fiery old Roman god of war. Jupiter's sign may be the Jagged thunderbolt he was so fond of throwing. Or it might be the letter of his Greek name, Zeus. Saturn's sign is a sort of sickle, or scythe. Saturn was the slowest of the planets known to the ancients. His sign may represent the scythe of father Time.
Uranus was discovered less than two hundred years ago, in 1781. The glamorous gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome had long been out of date. But the astronomers wanted to keep a family likeness in naming the newly discovered planet, The element uranium had recently been discovered,
And the world of science was very interested in it. Why not call the new found planet after the newly found element? A compromise was reached. Uranus was the Greek god of heaven. And it also suggested the newly named element. The sign of old Uranus was given to the planet. It is a circle with a dot in the middle and crowned with an arrow.
On September 23, 1$56 still another planet appeared in the telescopes. It was named for Neptune, the Roman god of waters. Old Neptune’s sign was the trident ‑ the three tined fork of the old god of the sea, So the trident was given as a sign to the eighth known member of the Solar family.
In 1920, still another member of the planet family had its picture taken. It was named Pluto from the Roman god of darkness. Little Pluto is so far from the light and heat of the sun. The sign for the dim planet is a large letter P with a tail to it.
The word planet Itself also goes back to ancient days. The star gazers of long ago noticed that most heavenly bodies paraded over the sky in fixed order. A few seemed to disobey all the rules and wander all 'over the plaee. They 'raced curly paths against‑the background of fixed stars. The word planet means a wanderer,