Editing 16 Psyche (section)

== Symbol ==
[[File:Psyche insignia.svg|thumb|left|Insignia of the NASA ''Psyche'' mission]]
Astronomers created [[planet symbols|icon-like symbols]] for the first fifteen asteroids to be discovered, as a type of shorthand notation consistent with older notation for the [[classical planet]]s. Psyche was given an iconic symbol, as were a few other asteroids discovered after 16&nbsp;Psyche. The symbol was a butterfly's wing topped by a star ([[File:Psyche symbol (fixed width).svg|16px|16&nbsp;Psyche]] or [[File:Psyche symbol (elaborate, fixed width).svg|16px|16&nbsp;Psyche]]), as the butterfly was a Greek symbol of the soul (''psyche'' being the Greek word for both "butterfly" and "soul").<ref name=Sonntag-1852/> This symbol may have influenced the design of the official insignia for the NASA ''[[Psyche (spacecraft)|Psyche]]'' mission to this asteroid. It is in the pipeline for [[Unicode]] 17.0 as U+1CEC9 𜻉 ([[File:Psyche symbol (fixed width).svg|12px]]).<ref name=astunicode>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2023/23207-historical-asteroids.pdf |title=Unicode request for historical asteroid symbols |last1=Bala |first1=Gavin Jared |last2=Miller |first2=Kirk |date=18 September 2023 |website=unicode.org |publisher=Unicode |access-date=26 September 2023 |quote=}}</ref><ref name=pipeline>{{cite web |title=Proposed New Characters |series=The Pipeline |date= |website=unicode.org |publisher=The [[Unicode Consortium]] |url=https://unicode.org/alloc/Pipeline.html |access-date=6 November 2023 }}</ref>

However, the iconic symbols for all asteroids were superseded before Psyche's symbol ever came into use. With more than a dozen asteroids discovered, remembering all their individual emblems became increasingly cumbersome, and, in 1851, German astronomer [[Johann Franz Encke|J.F. Encke]] suggested using a circled number instead: {{big|⑯}}. The first asteroid designated with the new scheme was {{nobr|{{big|⑯}} Psyche}}, when American astronomer [[James Ferguson (American astronomer)|J. Ferguson]] published his observations in 1852.<ref name=Hinton-2001-09-17-USNO/>