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1. clacke: inhibited exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 23-Dec-2023 02:22:47 EST clacke: inhibited exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛

   > Was Neptune the thirteenth planet known in the solar system?
   Amazingly, the answer is both yes and no. By the time of the discov-
   ery of Neptune, in late 1846, astronomers had had forty years to
   digest the earlier discoveries of Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, the
   alleged eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh planets in the solar sys-
   tem. Then, less than a year before the discovery of Neptune, a fifth
   trans-Martian object and the twelfth planet, Astraea, had been
   found. Thus, when Neptune was discovered in late 1846, it took its
   place in line as the thirteenth planet. Yet, by 1847 William Her-
   schel’s decades-old suggestion that the trans-Martian objects are
   minor planets, or asteroids, and not major planets, took hold. In the
   minds of many, 1847 was a watershed year during which Ceres, Pal-
   las, Juno, Vesta, and Astraea were reclassified as asteroids. Neptune
   moved up in line: it was both the thirteenth planet, including major
   and minor planets, and the eighth major planet.

   
   doi:10.1515/9781400852970-009

   "Neptune, the thirteenth planet", Chapter 8 of "Is Pluto a Planet? –
   A Historical Journey through the Solar System" by David A. Weintraub

   1. clacke: inhibited exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Saturday, 23-Dec-2023 02:29:09 EST clacke: inhibited exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛

      in reply to
      I was looking for whether Pluto and Ceres were "planets" at the same time and whether Pluto was the thirteenth planet (the major 8 + the first four discovered asteroids and then Pluto), because en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline… is very unclear about when the major asteroids were degraded to minor planets or asteroids.