 Apart from their rapid movement, they appeared indistinguishable from stars.Accordingly, in 1802, William Herschel suggested they be placed into a separate category, named "asteroids", after the Greek "asteroeides", meaning "star-like".Upon completing a series of observations of Ceres and Pallas, he concluded,

Neither the appellation of planets nor that of comets, can with any propriety of language be given to these two stars ...