When the asteroids were first being discovered starting in 1800, they were awarded astrological symbols just like the planets. In 1851, when some were calling for a switch to a simpler and more memorable numerical system, Benjamin Gould, editor of the Astronomical Journal, stated:

I understand this decision, but I think it was motivated by fear. I can do better.

This wiki is a one-person passion project to develop an iconic and distinctive symbol for every named non-stellar object in the night sky - including planets, moons, comets, dwarf planets, and even exoplanets. I have already developed thousands of interrelated symbols, based on symbols from a wide range of cultures and time periods. This is a protracted exercise in astrosymbology, a field that I imagine adjacent to the likes of heraldry and vexillology.

There are approximately 20,000 minor planets with official IAU names. I estimate that I have gathered or created symbols for at least 2000 of them, and I am continuing to develop more. In time, I will record them here.

Right now this wiki is in the early stages of construction! Later, it will be filled with articles for each symbolized body, including descriptions and design choices for the symbol, and other things, like my manifesto and general design guidebook for this project. For the time being, I'm afraid it mainly has hand-drawn images and broken links.

You can contact me at the Contact link above. I encourage feedback and discussion about the symbols posted on this site.

Here's a random minor planet article: 3568 ASCII

3568.png

This minor planet is named after a Japanese computer magazine relased from 1977 to 2008, which is itself named after the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a computer character encoding standard.

The symbol of this minor planet is a vertical rectangle, in the usual $(\sqrt{2} : 1)$ $\hspace{1pt}$ proportions, with an italicized capital Latin letter A inscribed in it, reminiscent of the classic design of the magazine's cover.

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