Astronomical symbols

Encyclopedia : A : AS : AST : Astronomical symbols

Chinese Celestial symbols on an antique bronze mirror

Astronomical symbols are symbols used to represent various celestial objects, theoretical constructs and observational events in astronomy. Many of the symbols are shared with astrology. The symbols listed here are commonly used by professional and amateur astronomers, and some are shared with astrology though there are differences depending on what part of the world you are in. (European glyphs differ slightly from American, for example)

Miscellaneous symbols

Symbols of planets

name	symbol	Unicode	image	Represented by image
first quarter Moon	☽	U+263D		crescent moon (increscent)
last quarter Moon	☾	U+263E		crescent moon (decrescent)
Mercury	☿	U+263F		Mercury's winged helmet and caduceus
Venus	♀	U+2640		Venus' hand mirror
Earth	⊕	U+2295		globe with equator and a meridian
Mars	♂	U+2642		Mars' shield and spear
Jupiter	♃	U+2643		Jupiter's thunderbolt or eagle
Saturn	♄	U+2644		Saturn's sickle or scythe
Uranus	♅	U+2645		H for William Herschel
Neptune	♆	U+2646		Neptune's trident
Pluto	♇	U+2647		PL monogram for Pluto and Percival Lowell

An [image] of these symbols is available from NASA.

Zodiacal symbols

See also

• Astronomy
• Astrology
• Planet
• Circled dot
• Constellation
• Zodiac
• Solar symbols
• Solar system

External links

• [When did Asteroids become Minor Planets?]
• [Early Astrological Glyphs from a 10th century manuscript]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.