Interesting Pieces of Information You May Never Need

It’s space-y, it’s weird, it’s pretty much useless, but hey let’s learn something new anyway!

I was thinking about other extra-terrestrial objects, and what their adjectives were, but I only knew there were adjectives for the moon and sun: lunar and solar.

So, voilà! A list of planetary and lunar adjectives, along with their astrological symbols. Although we almost never use any astrology in astronomy, the symbols are sometimes used for shortening, or for units (like solar radii R☉ or Earth radii R⊕).

I’ve only included adjectives for the main moons of each planet.

 

• Mercury ☿ – Mercurian, Hermeian, Cyllenian

 

• Venus ♀ ­­– Venusian, Cytherean, Hesperian

 

 

• Earth ♁ or ⊕ – Terran, Gaian, Tellurian
  • Moon ☾ – lunar, Selenian, Cynthian

 

• Mars ♂️ – Martian, Arean
  • Deimos – Deimosian
  • Phobos – Phobian

 

• Ceres ⚳ – Cererian

 

Asteroid – Asteroid (it’s a name and adjective)

 

• Jupiter ♃ – Jovian
  • Io – Ionian, Ioer
  • Kallichore – Callichorean
  • Kalyke – Calycian

 

• Saturn ♄ – Saturnian, Cronian
  • Janus – Janian
  • Kiviuq – Kiviup
  • Pan – Pandean

• Uranus ⛢ or ♅ – Uranian
  • Miranda – Mirandan
  • Ariel – Arielian
  • Umbriel – Umbrielian
  • Titania – Titanian
  • Oberon – Oberonian

• Neptune ♆ – Neptunian, Poseidean
  • Triton – Tritonian

 

 

Kuiper Belt Planets – Plutoid (adjective and name)

• Pluto ♇ – Plutonian
  • Charon – Charonian

 

• Haumea  – Haumean

• Makemake  – Makemakean

• Eris   – Eridian

 

That’s all for today’s info dump!

Happy Stargazing!