134340 - Asteroid Pluto

[plutocrass]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14789691/<br /><br />Apparently the first asteroid was number 1, and the last asteroid is number 136472.<br /><br />Did you guys ever see that movie called Raiders of the Last Ark? They put the Ark of the Covenant into a crate and it was lost in the middle of a Pentagon Warehouse.<br /><br />Thus is Pluto locked in a crate.

 

[harmonicaman]

The mods will shortly be changing your user name to:<br /><br /><b>134340crass</b> <img src="/images/icons/rolleyes.gif" />

 

[cuddlyrocket]

Unfortunately the msnbc and the space.com main page articles both incorrectly say that Pluto has been given an asteroid number. It has not.<br /><br />The Minor Planet Centre has decided that dwarf planets come within its remit (which is basically any object in the solar system that is not a planet) and should be numbered together with asteroids, comets, kuiper belt objects etc.<br /><br />The aricles also say that the IAU decided that dwarf planets such as Pluto should be placed in the same category as other small solar-system bodies. The IAU did no such thing. It defined small solar-system bodies as all objects <i>other than</i> planets and dwarf planets.