Planet symbols

A planet symbol (or planetary symbol) is a graphical symbol used in astrology and astronomy to represent a classical planet (including the Sun and the Moon) or one of the modern planets. The symbols were also used in alchemy to represent the metals associated with the planets, and in calendars for their associated days. The use of these symbols derives from Classical Greco-Roman astronomy, though their current shapes are a development of the 16th century.

The classical planets, their symbols, days and most commonly associated planetary metals are:

planet	Moon	Mercury	Venus	Sun	Mars	Jupiter	Saturn
symbol (text)	☾	☿	♀	☉	♂	♃	♄
symbol (image)
day	Monday	Wednesday	Friday	Sunday	Tuesday	Thursday	Saturday
metal	silver	mercury	copper	gold	iron	tin	lead

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) discourages the use of these symbols in modern journal articles, and their style manual proposes one- and two-letter abbreviations for the names of the planets for cases where planetary symbols might be used, such as in the headings of tables.^[1] The modern planets with their traditional symbols and IAU abbreviations are: