What element is named after a planet?

Answer 1

Planets

• Mercury (Mercury)
• Tellurium (Earth) (Latin tellus meaning "earth")
• Uranium - (Uranus)
• Neptunium (Neptune)

Dwarf Planets

• Plutonium (Pluto)
• Cerium (Ceres)

Other

• Palladium (The asteroid Pallas)
• Krypton (Superman's birthplace)

Answer 2

Uranium and neptunium are both named after planets. Plutonium, cerium, and palladium are named after celestial bodies that were considered to be planets at the time the elements were discovered/named. Tellurium and selenium are named after alternative names for Earth and the Moon respectively. The name of the element helium comes from the Greek word for "sun".

The element mercury shares its name with a planet, but the situation is a little murky: the element was called something else before the alchemists got involved, and alchemists were big into Astrology and associated the element with the planet. So it might be named after the planet, or they both just might be named after the Roman god Mercury.

Elements that definitely aren't named after planets (or other celestial bodies), though you could be excused for thinking they might be:

Iridium and the asteroid/minor planet Iris were independently named after the Roman goddess Iris. In this case the element definitely wasn't named after the asteroid because it was named before the asteroid.

Similarly, Prometheus the moon of Saturn wasn't discovered until 1980, while promethium the element had been named in the 1940s. Both of them were named after the mythological character Prometheus.

Europa (a moon of Jupiter) is named after a mythological character, while europium was named after the continent of Europe, which name is probably related to the same mythological character somehow but no one is sure exactly how.

And, just because I know someone is thinking it: the noble gas krypton was discovered and named a few decades before Superman was created. The name of the element comes from a Greek word meaning "hidden." I don't know why Siegel and Schuster chose that name for their character's home world; they may have named it after the element, they may have named it after the same Greek word, or they may just have liked the sound of it.

Answer 3

Uranium was named after Uranus, which was discovered a few years before Uranium. Neptunium, a synthetically produced element was named after Neptune and Plutonium after Pluto, which was the ninth planet at the time of its naming.

Answer 4

Uranium after Uranus, Neptunium after Neptune, and Plutonium after Pluto

Answer 5

Mercury

Uranium

Neptunium

Plutonium

Answer 6

Mercury and neptunium. Plutonium could also qualify, but Pluto is no longer considered to be a planet.

Answer 7

Plutonium - Pu.

Answer 8

Mercury