2007-12-03 03:16:49 · 5 answers · asked by Shadow 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
We use Roman names.
Mercury: fast moving, the messenger of the gods.
Venus: beautiful, the goddess of love.
Mars: blood red, the god of war.
Jupiter: bright, dominating the night sky, the king of the gods.
Saturn: slow moving, an old god.
Some days of the week are named after Roman gods in the Romance languages (e.g. Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi), and after the equivalent Anglo-Saxon gods in English (Tiw, Woden, Thor, Freya).
2007-12-03 04:46:40 · answer #1 · answered by laurahal42 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
All of the other planets in our Solar System were named after either Roman or Greek Gods, including the more recently discovered dwarf planets. The exception is Earth, of course, and you have to wonder why our little blue green planet didn't get a more interesting name!
Who named them? Well, given the names chosen, it's more than likely that the visible planets were named by astronomers from Greece or Italy, with newly discovered planets etc merely following the trend that had already been set.
Interestingly, Disney's well known dog was named after the planet Pluto, which had then only recently been discovered (1930's).
2007-12-03 03:39:29 · answer #2 · answered by Andrew M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Romans named the naked eye planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn after the Roman gods. Planets discovered by telescope have been named by committees of astronomers when they were discovered. They have tended to favor Roman god names as a tradition.
2007-12-03 03:24:23 · answer #3 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, they've been known by many names, and different cultures called them different things. Today, what we know them by comes from the Greeks, who named them for the 7 days of the week. (When they were named, we knew of only 7 heavenly bodies...) Sunday is derived from Sun, Monday derived from the Moon, Tuesday is from Mars, Wednesday was... Venus, IIRC, Thursday is Jupiter, Friday Mercury, and Saturday is from Saturn.
(I may have gotten a couple switched.... sorry about that.) Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered only in the latest 150 years or so, so THOSE names were chosen after particular Gods, also from the Classical era.
2007-12-03 03:24:59 · answer #4 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first four historically were named Fred, Doris, Bert, Cyril.
The Greeks and Romans decided to change them for their mates names.
2007-12-03 06:55:40 · answer #5 · answered by rogerglyn 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋