<p>The globus cruciger looks a lot like a european monarch's orb.  So some peole might mistake it for a symbol of royalty instead of an astronomical symbol.</p>
<p>The globus cruciger has a circle presenting Earth with a cross on top.  Thus it looks like a symbol of Christianity ruling the world, a concept which billions of non Christian people might consider sinister and threatening.</p>
<p>The other symbol for Earth could be interpreted as the planet with a cross spread over it, which those non Christians might consider to be equally sinister and threatening, or it could be interpreted as an image of Earth with the equator and a meridian of longitude crossing in the center, a symbolic repesentation of the geography of Earth and thus non threatening to anyone.</p>
<p>Som eof the Earth symbols linked to here: <a href="https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A2KLfS1njsdg0pcAazRXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZANDMjAwM18xBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=symbol+of+planet+earth&amp;fr2=piv-web&amp;fr=mcafee#id=1&amp;iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.onlinewebfonts.com%2Fsvg%2Fimg_32577.png&amp;action=click%5B1%5D" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A2KLfS1njsdg0pcAazRXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZANDMjAwM18xBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=symbol+of+planet+earth&amp;fr2=piv-web&amp;fr=mcafee#id=1&amp;iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.onlinewebfonts.com%2Fsvg%2Fimg_32577.png&amp;action=click[1]</a> would be even less threatening to anyone, since they are several meridian lines and can't be mistakenfor crossesspread over the Earth.</p>
<p>And if there is every a united Earth government along with governments of various pace colonies, I would expect the cross in circle Earth symbol to be used in the coat of arms and flag of Earth, while the globus cruciger symbol could be used for the head of state of United Earth since it resembles a monarch's orb.</p>
<p>And those are my guesses.  Of course it is perfectly possible that there is no reason that anyone knows of for why the cross in circle symbol of Earth is used more often than the globus cruciger symbol of Earth.  The reasons for such things are often unknown.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-14T17:24:32.157Z
Jesus was crucified on Earth, so there is nothing "sinister and threatening" about using it as the Earth's symbol (and there would be nothing sinister with Christianity ruling the Earth either). An equator and meridian on the other hand can be applied to _any_ planet or planetary moon.
John
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-14T18:43:00.593Z
@John A very Christian perspective. I was brought up Christian and even I think you're being mighty narrow-minded here
Kristoffer Sjöö
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-15T12:05:06.260Z
@John this is already waaay off topic, and frankly getting rather offensive. Mods, can these comments be moved to chat, or better yet, removed altogether.
franz_lyre
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-15T12:23:18.747Z
@f_n_lyre I deleted the latter post.
John
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-14T17:16:09.887Z
2021-06-14T17:16:09.887Z
M. A. Golding
<p>Why is that symbol  used more often (or almost always) when portraying e.g. Earth mass or Earth radii than the globus cruciger ♁ ? From my point of view the globus cruciger fits much better as symbol for Earth because Venus has an upside down globus cruciger, Mercury has the same as Venus with an additional hemisphere, and Mars has an oblique arrow instead of a cross. I don't like the use of the other symbol because when small enough, it can easily be confused with the Sun symbol ☉. Why is it used despite the globus cruciger symbol fitting more?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-14T21:15:50.920Z
My 50 cents: The $\oplus$-sign is available in more non-[unicode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode) computer fonts than the other symbol. This is true even in [LaTeX](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX): `\oplus` is standard while `\Earth` requires the `mathabx` package.
B--rian
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-15T08:23:19.717Z
@B--rian I’m pretty sure the availability in computers fonts is simply a reflection of existing usage, not a cause.
Peter Erwin
<solar-system><earth><symbols>
Why is the globe/compass symbol used more often than the globus cruciger for Earth?
John
# Why is the globe/compass symbol used more often than the globus cruciger for Earth?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-06-14)

Why is that symbol used more often (or almost always) when portraying e.g. Earth mass or Earth radii than the globus cruciger ♁ ? From my point of view the globus cruciger fits much better as symbol for Earth because Venus has an upside down globus cruciger, Mercury has the same as Venus with an additional hemisphere, and Mars has an oblique arrow instead of a cross. I don't like the use of the other symbol because when small enough, it can easily be confused with the Sun symbol ☉. Why is it used despite the globus cruciger symbol fitting more?

**Tags:** solar-system, earth, symbols
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: My 50 cents: The $\oplus$-sign is available in more non-[unicode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode) computer fonts than the other symbol. This is true even in [LaTeX](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX): `\oplus` is standard while `\Earth` requires the `mathabx` package.  
> **username_2**: @B--rian I’m pretty sure the availability in computers fonts is simply a reflection of existing usage, not a cause.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2021-06-14. Score: 0

The globus cruciger looks a lot like a european monarch's orb. So some peole might mistake it for a symbol of royalty instead of an astronomical symbol.

The globus cruciger has a circle presenting Earth with a cross on top. Thus it looks like a symbol of Christianity ruling the world, a concept which billions of non Christian people might consider sinister and threatening.

The other symbol for Earth could be interpreted as the planet with a cross spread over it, which those non Christians might consider to be equally sinister and threatening, or it could be interpreted as an image of Earth with the equator and a meridian of longitude crossing in the center, a symbolic repesentation of the geography of Earth and thus non threatening to anyone.

Som eof the Earth symbols linked to here: [https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;\_ylt=A2KLfS1njsdg0pcAazRXNyoA;\_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZANDMjAwM18xBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=symbol+of+planet+earth&fr2=piv-web&fr=mcafee#id=1&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.onlinewebfonts.com%2Fsvg%2Fimg\_32577.png&action=click[1]](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A2KLfS1njsdg0pcAazRXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZANDMjAwM18xBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=symbol+of+planet+earth&fr2=piv-web&fr=mcafee#id=1&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.onlinewebfonts.com%2Fsvg%2Fimg_32577.png&action=click%5B1%5D) would be even less threatening to anyone, since they are several meridian lines and can't be mistakenfor crossesspread over the Earth.

And if there is every a united Earth government along with governments of various pace colonies, I would expect the cross in circle Earth symbol to be used in the coat of arms and flag of Earth, while the globus cruciger symbol could be used for the head of state of United Earth since it resembles a monarch's orb.

And those are my guesses. Of course it is perfectly possible that there is no reason that anyone knows of for why the cross in circle symbol of Earth is used more often than the globus cruciger symbol of Earth. The reasons for such things are often unknown.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Jesus was crucified on Earth, so there is nothing "sinister and threatening" about using it as the Earth's symbol (and there would be nothing sinister with Christianity ruling the Earth either). An equator and meridian on the other hand can be applied to _any_ planet or planetary moon.  
> **username_4**: @John A very Christian perspective. I was brought up Christian and even I think you're being mighty narrow-minded here  
> **username_5**: @John this is already waaay off topic, and frankly getting rather offensive. Mods, can these comments be moved to chat, or better yet, removed altogether.  
> **username_0**: @f_n_lyre I deleted the latter post.  

---

