Stripped of planethood, Pluto is now just Asteroid No. 134340

Pluto has been given a new name to reflect its new status as a dwarf planet, SPACE.com staff writer Ker Than reported on Monday. The former 9th planet, Pluto was assigned the asteroid number 134340 by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), the official organization collecting data about asteroids and comets in the solar system, the report said. A recent decision of the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) stripped Pluto of its "planethood" and placed it in the same category as other small solar-system bodies with accurately known orbits, SPACE.com said. The report quoted MPC director emeritus Brian Marsden as saying that Pluto's companion satellites, Charon, Nix and Hydra are considered part of the same system and will not be assigned separate asteroid numbers. "Instead, they will be called 134340 I, II and III, respectively." According to the report, "there are currently 136,563 asteroid objects recognized by the MPC" and 2,224 new objects were added last week led by Pluto. Similarly, the other asteroid numbers given included 2003 UB313, also known as "Xena," and the recently discovered Kuiper Belt objects 2003 EL61 and 2005 FY9, the report added. "Their asteroid numbers are 136199, 136108 and 136472, respectively." In a separate statement, it said the MPC announced that the assignment of permanent asteroid numbers to Pluto and other large objects located beyond the orbit of Neptune "does not preclude their having dual designations in possible separate catalogues of such bodies." Marsden explained, the report said, that "the cryptic wording refers to the future possibility of creating a separate astronomical catalogue specific to dwarf planets." There might even be more than one catalogue created. SPACE.com said Marsden explained that the recent IAU decision implies "that there would be two catalogues of dwarf planets-one for just the trans-Neptunian Pluto type and the other for objects like Ceres, which has also been deemed a dwarf planet." Pluto's asteroid number was first reported today on the website of Sky and Telescope magazine, the report added.