[meteorite-list] Ceres, Pallas, Juno & Vesta Were Once Considered Planets

[Darren Garrison]

On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:40:35 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:

>
>Here's an interesting history of the first asteroids:
>
>http://aa.usno.navy.mil/hilton/AsteroidHistory/minorplanets.html
>
>For roughly 50 years until the 1850's, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta
>were all considered planets.

Scandalous, how those scientists were willing to hurt the feelings of poor dead
Guiseppe Piazzi, Heinrich Olbers, and, uh... whoever it was discoved Juno and
Vesta!  Shouldn't science have enshrined their misunderstandings as their
legacies? 

Great illustration about half-way down the page:

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/hilton/AsteroidHistory/Sizes/sizessmall.gif