How Did The Planets Get Their Names?

Yes, how did these spherical bodies get their names?  Let's take our time in analyzing every one of them. For centuries, people have called each of these planets with a specific name, without practically knowing how they got it.

Mercury
Mercury is known for its small size and nearness to our star, the Sun, which is about 57.91km. Mercury has a radius of 2,440km and was discovered by the Romans. 

Mercury is one of the five brightest planets that shine in the night sky. Romans named this planet after the Roman god of travel and commerce (Greek Equivalent: Hermes, the messenger of the gods) Mercury, due to its natural and swift way of orbiting the sun (which takes about 88 days).

Venus
The brightest planet ever known to glitter in our night sky. Venus is the hottest and second closest planet to the Sun in the solar system. Having an orbital period of 224.7 days, it rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets.

 Being one of the four terrestrial planets, Venus has a radius of 6,052km. Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, who had her Greek equivalent to being Aphrodite.
Earth
Our beloved old and habitable ball of rock, Earth. Earth is the third planet from the sun and has been known to be the only planet harboring life in the universe. Having a radius of 6,371km, Earth has the perfect temperature and chemical composition to support various life forms, intelligent life forms equally.

Earth managed to break the Roman-Greek traditional by not being named after any of their gods, but was named from an old English /German word that translates to "Ground".

Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the second smallest planet in the solar system. Sometimes it can be seen in the night sky as a bright reddish object, with just our bare eyes.

Mars obtained its name from the Roman god of war, and most times, is often referred to as "The Red Planet." Mars moves at an average orbital speed of 24.077kms-¹ and has an escape velocity of 5.027kms-¹. The planet has two oddly shaped moons, Deimos and Phobos. Due to the iron oxide prevalent on its rough surface, a vicious scarlet colour radiates, which led to the Egyptians calling it "The Red One."

Jupiter
The largest and the fifth planet away from the Sun. Being one of the gas giants and having 69 moons hasn't really been a marathon for this giant world. Jupiter is the third brightest planet in the night sky.

Jupiter's 69 moons are named after the lovers and daughters of the Roman god Jupiter (Greek Equivalent: Zeus). Due to its stature and size, Jupiter is dubbed "The King of All Planets," hence its name, from the Roman god of Light, thunder, and sky, who is the king of all ancient Roman gods. Surprisingly, Jupiter has itself surrounded by faint rings, which are difficult to see.

Saturn
The second largest planet in our Solar system, and the fifth brightest planet in our night sky. Saturn is another spherical gas giant (just like Jupiter) and has its density tremendously low it would float in a bucket of water. Surprisingly, Saturn's rings are made up of dust and ice particles caught under its gravitational field. 

Surprisingly, Saturn's rings are made up of dust and ice particles caught under its gravitational field. Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture and wealth (Greek equivalent: Kronos). Saturn has an average radius of about nine times that of Earth and an orbital period of 29.4571 Earth years.


Uranus
One of the ice giants in our solar system, Uranus is the seventh planet away from the sun and is extremely cold and windy due to its distance away from the sun. 

Uranus was named by Johann Bode, who named it after the Greek god of the heavens or sky, due to its sky blue colour. Cool, uh?


Neptune
Another ice giant. Due to its distance from the sun, this cold planet can't be seen with the bare eyes, but only with the use of a telescope. Neptune was the first planet to be mathematically predicted. It was predicted by John Adams and Urbain Le Verrier, who were British and French mathematicians.

 The prediction came out correct after being observed through a telescope by Johann Galle, a German astronomer in 1846. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth, and it completes its orbit around the sun every 164.8 years. And it was named after the Roman god (Greek Equivalent: Poseidon) of the sea.

So that's it fellas, now you know how they got their names.
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Image Credit:Wikipedia