Mary Louise McCraw, age l0, of Appomattox., Va., for her question:
Why were such names chosen for the planets?
No one knows when the human family arrived on this luxurious planet but it was long ago. The folks made themselves at home and day by day they discovered more of its wonders. At night they looksd up at the splendors of the sky and gave names to the bright heavenly bodies.
some of the planets were named thousands of years ago when the human family was nor and Vel7 young. The people had spread out and settled here and there on the earth. And because they were human beings, they loved to look up in awe and admiration at the sky. They watched and charted the paths of the sun and moon, the stars and planets moving over the heavens. Much later, the stargazers of the scattered famliy used to meet and talk over what each of them had learned.
This was before the dawn of history, before mankind learned to write down the events of the day. He was trying to solve the secret wonders of the world, but he was just beginning. some of his first simple ideas seem strange to us because we have outgrown them. Our ancestors of those days believed the world was run by superhuman brings who lived in the heavens.
These were the gods and goddesses that were supposed to run the lives of human beings. They were feared and worshipped and our ancient ancestors strived their best to please them. It seemed natural to name the brightest heavenly bodies in their honor. Jupiter was named for the king of the ancient gods and Venus for the goddess of beauty. Saturn was named for another god and Mars for the god of war. Mercury was named for the fleet footed messenger of the gods and goddesses.
The ancient stargazers did not know that the wandering planets orbit the sun or that there were more planets too far away for their eyes to see. These three had to wait for the invention of the telescope. By this time mankind had outgrown his old ideas of gods and goddesses. But our astronomers had a deep respect for all the work done by stargazers of old. They kept the ancient names for the well mown planets and found names to match them for the newly discovered planets. Uranus was named for an ancient god of the sky and Neptune for a god of the sea. Little Pluto, farthest from the sun, was named for the ancient god who was supposed to rule an underworld of darkness.
Mary of the stars and constellations were named in ancient days. Our early ancestors told legends of their gods visiting sacred animals and human heroes on earth. The constellation Taurus was named for a sacred bull; Perseus was named for a fearless hero and Aridrolrieda for the maiden he rescued. We keep these old names because we are used to them and also because we respect our stargazing ancestors for starting us on the way to the Age of space.