The word ‘planet’ comes from the ancient Greek ἀστήρ πλανήτης (astēr planētēs), meaning "wandering star". The large number of stars observed in the heavens were classified into fixed stars and wandering stars. Fixed stars were those with respect to which the movement of the celestial bodies were measured. Wandering stars were those whose relative distances with respect to the fixed stars keep changing. Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and Saturn belonged to the latter category. Among these, Jupiter was known as Bright Wandering Star.
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