Unidentified Icons?

[Valthira Arkayne]

I'm deep into a game with several friends and I've noticed a new icon I've never seen before starting to appear all across the enemy's space; "*" and "#". They're in front of the names of planets and only appear on the worlds he's colonized.

Does anyone know what those represent? I've seen no change in the planet's value (such as an increade in atmosphere quality or resource wealth). I need to figure this out before he springs something on me =)