Skip to content
Curated playlist

Named minor planets

  • HaumeaHaumea, a dwarf planet, was found to have a ring in 2017. It was the first ring found around a dwarf planet.
  • PlutoIn 2006, astronomers voted to change the meaning of planet, and Pluto became a dwarf planet.
  • 4 VestaAbout one in sixteen meteorites found on Earth is thought to come from the asteroid 4 Vesta.
  • MakemakeThe dwarf planet Makemake is brighter than Pluto. Its surface reflects 82 percent of light, thanks to fresh methane ice.
  • Eris (dwarf planet)Eris was photographed in 1954 and nobody noticed. The dwarf planet's steep orbit kept it out of sky surveys.
  • 25143 ItokawaA Japanese capsule landed in the Australian desert in 2010 carrying dust from the asteroid Itokawa.
  • 2 PallasCharles Messier recorded the asteroid 2 Pallas in 1779 and mistook it for a star.
  • Ceres (dwarf planet)On January 1, 1801, a priest named Giuseppe Piazzi mistook Ceres for a comet. He was an astronomer in Sicily.
  • 243 IdaAnn Harch found a moon orbiting the asteroid 243 Ida in 1994. No asteroid had been confirmed to have one before.
  • 951 GaspraIn October 1991, the Galileo spacecraft became the first to visit an asteroid up close. The rock was 951 Gaspra.
  • 10199 CharikloIn 2013, astronomers watching a star dim found rings around the small centaur Chariklo.
  • 10 HygieaThe asteroid 10 Hygiea is nearly a perfect sphere, unlike most asteroids.
  • 2060 ChironThe space rock 2060 Chiron, once floated as a tenth planet, turned out to have rings.
  • 594913 ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim594913 ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim is the first asteroid confirmed to orbit entirely inside the orbit of Venus.
  • 433 ErosIn 2001, NASA's NEAR Shoemaker became the first spacecraft to land softly on an asteroid, 433 Eros.
  • 15760 AlbionIts discoverers wanted to call 15760 Albion Smiley, but an asteroid already had that name. It stayed nameless for years.
  • 541132 LeleākūhonuaA distant object nicknamed "The Goblin" takes about 55,000 years to orbit the Sun.
  • 99942 ApophisThe asteroid 99942 Apophis is about 450 metres long and 170 metres wide, and for a few days at the end of 2004 it was the most worrying object in the sky. Early calculations gave it a 2.7 percent chance of striking Earth on Friday, the…

Queue