What dos the (*) next to a planet name mean?

It means that you're noob.
Jk.
It means the planet has had activity in the last 10 minutes (Someone probed it, a fleet returned/attacked/transported something OR the owner (player) is online.

first of all you have been around Admiral Cole lol, so i know you know what it means. Secondly it could also be the fake attempt that some lame players try to use in their name to make you think they are online and ward off attacks when in fact they are offline. However, from what I have seen, most of them forget to rename the planet and take it off when they are online. So when they go to that planet page or they are probed..it will show (*)(*), meaning they are online AND they have that in the name of thier planet. Imo, this should be not allowed, no different than the Vmode issue. Meaning its just as bad, not that it is the same (for those of you that wanna pick and say they arent the same, duh)

Thanks for the help, both of you.