Starship Asterisk*

Pluto is not the ninth planet. That’s Pallas: 7) Uranus 1781 8) Ceres 1801 9) Pallas 1802 10) Juno 1804 11) Vesta 1807 12) Astraea 1845 13) Neptune 1846 14) Hebe 1847 … Pluto is way, way down the list! ;-) Remember, these are all planets, objects that orbit the Sun. It’s just a question of whether t...

I see that you all are avoiding the term “Kuiper Belt Object” for 2014 MU69, calling it simply an asteroid, which I know emphasizes the expectation that they are not fundamentally different from “Asteroid Belt Objects”. However, I’ve always preferred the term “icy asteroid” to distinguish them in an...