While knowledge of the planets predates history and is common
to most civilizations, the word planet dates
back to ancient Greece. Most Greeks
believed the Earth to be stationary and at the center of the universe in
accordance with the geocentric model and that the objects in
the sky, and indeed the sky itself, revolved around it (an exception was Aristarchus
of Samos, who put forward an early version of heliocentrism).
Greek astronomers employed the term asters
Plantae, "wandering stars”, to describe those starlike lights in the
heavens that moved over the course of the year, in contrast to the asters
alpines, the "fixed stars", which
stayed motionless relative to one another. The five bodies currently called
"planets" that were known to the Greeks were those visible to the
naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
and Saturn.
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