Do astronomers still refer to pluto as a pluto or is just that random series of numbers?

Answer 1

MINOR PLANET CENTRE CATALOGUE NUMBERS

The Minor Planet Centre (MPC) operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, under the auspices of Division III of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), with significant funding coming from subscriptions to the various services offered by the Centre. (see link)

The MPC is responsible for the designation of minor bodies in the solar system: minor planets; comets; and natural satellites,

134340 Pluto is the Minor Planet Centre Catalogue number for the dwarf planet Pluto. This catalogue which started with 1 Ceres in 1801 and 2 Pallas in 1802 is only for objects in the Solar System,

In some cases it is essential to quote the MPC number as to omit it would lead to confusion. The asteroids 9 Metis, 52 Europa and 85 Io would get confused with Metis, Europa and Io. which are all moons of Jupiter, otherwise. Similarly 74 Galatea shares its name with a moon of Neptune, 113 Amalthea shares its name with a moon of Saturn and 171 Ophelia shares its name with a moon of Uranus.

67 Asia and 136 Austria, if shorn of their MPC numbers could be taken for the continent and country on Earth, 12 Victoria and 50 Virginia risk confusion with the Australian and American states of the same name, once numberless. And had Xena been named Persephone or Proserpina rather than Eris (as was anticipated), it would have been necessary to distinguish it from the asteroids 26 Proserpina or 399 Persephone. So the number is sometimes needed. Though not in Pluto's case.

We know of 340,000 or more asteroids, and about a third of these have orbits sufficiently well-charted to receive MPC numbers but only about a tenth of those given a designation have also been given names.

So, yes, astronomers do refer to many objects by numbers alone, but Pluto is not one of them,

When we get round to cataloguing the objects in the Asteroid Belts of other stars like Tau Ceti (11 light years away) and HD 69830 (41 light years away) we are likely to use a different system. specific to each star.

At the moment, none of the 200+ exoplanets we have found have official names, a small number have nicknames, eg 51 Pegasi b is nicknamed Bellerophon. But the IAU naming convention is to call the star by its catalogue number followed by a and the planets by the parent star's catalogue number followed by b, c, d or e (no star apart from our own has more than four known planets),

POSTSCRIPT

I have just seen Amy's list of confusables (below) I only went as far as asteroid 200, and looks like she went up to asteroid 1,000. So, my curiosity whetted, I looked beyond 1,000 and rapidly found 1036 Ganymed. Which risks being mistaken for Ganymede, the largest Galilean Moon of Jupiter.

Which means all four of Galileo's Jovian moons have an asteroid "double"!

A CLARIFICATION:

MESSIER NUMBERS

Larry has got this a bit confused. MPC numbers and Messier numbers are not the same thing. Messier studied and catalogued bright non-stellar objects that were features of the night sky. There are of course plenty of star catalogues, in which stars are recorded, but that isn't what Messier was interested in,

M31 is the Messier (not Mesmers) Catalogue number for the Andromeda Galaxy, not the Orion Nebula (that is M42). Charles Messier published his catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters in 1774.

The original motivation behind the catalogue was that Messier was a comet hunter, and was frustrated by objects which resembled but were not comets. He therefore compiled a list of these objects.

The first edition covered 45 objects numbered M1 to M45. The total list consists of 110 objects, ranging from M1 to M110. The final catalogue was published in 1781

Because Messier lived and worked in the Northern Hemisphere, the list he compiled contains only objects from the north celestial pole to a celestial latitude of about –35°. Many impressive Southern objects, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are excluded from the list.

So it is not comprehensive, but it does contain most of the interesting objects on which amateur astronomers like to train their telescopes, on a clear night, like M45, the Pleiades Cluster.

Answer 2

http://www.iau.org/fileadmin/content/pdfs/Resolution_GA26-5-6.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto

pluto is not a planet, but pluto orbits the sun, is round, does not have an isolated orbit (a bunch of other similar bodies have similar orbits.), and is not a satellite so it is a dwarf planet. this does not change anything about the solar system or pluto. it just corrects the mistake of classifying pluto as a planet initially.

this same thing has happened before. beginning in 1800, astronomers found a few bodies orbiting between the orbits of mars and jupiter, and they finally stopped calling them planets after the fourth discovery. astronomers then added numerals to the names, and pluto recently got its numeral. 150 years from now, no one will think of "134340 pluto" as a planet. very few will even know we classified it as a planet. "1 ceres" and "136199 eris" are other dwarf planets. 134340 is not a random series of numerals. it is a catalog or serial numeral.

i have been waiting for this since i was about twelve. i feel somewhat satisfied. i knew that pluto didn't fit the pattern set by the major bodies in the solar system so it was an anomaly. it just felt illogical and "out of place". this was the right thing to do, believe me. i don't understand why so many are having such a problem with this.

i don't know how long this will drag on tho. many planetary scientists are not satisfied that the definition is rigorous enough.

Answer 3

Other asteroids and minor planets with potentially confusing names, if you take away their MPC numbers include:

204 Kallisto (Callisto is a moon of Jupiter)
218 Bianca (Bianca is a moon of Uranus)
232 Russia
235 Carolina
239 Adrastea (Adrastea is a moon of Jupiter)
257 Silesia (the coalmining region of Poland)
301 Bavaria
327 Columbia
334 Chicago
341 California
348 May
359 Georgia
363 Padua
371 Bohemia
397 Vienna
426 Hippo
439 Ohio
469 Argentina
525 Adelaide
548 Kressida (Cressida is a moon of Uranus)
577 Rhea (Rhea is a moon of Saturn)
589 Croatia
593 Titania (Titania is a moon of Uranus)
666 Desdemona (Desdemona is a moon of Uranus)
716 Berkely
736 Harvard
747 Winchester
770 Bali
780 Armenia
790 Pretoria
793 Arizona
797 Montana
916 America
945 Barcelona

And an opera buff must have been behind 861 Aïda, 558 Carmen, 530 Turandot and 524 Fidelio!

Answer 4

To be honest with you, I think Pluto will not go back to being a series of number instead it will remain Pluto for it the planet that most of us and in the solar system and despite not being a planet anymore, I think it be weird we were to get rid of the name Pluto to it and started calling it numbers....

Answer 5

We still call it Pluto. The numerical designation (in addition to the name, not instead of the name) would only be used in formal papers.

This follows the convention of the asteroids. The most famous asteroids, like Ceres and Vesta, are usually just refered to by their names, and only by their name and number in formal situations (e.g., 1 Ceres, 4 Vesta). For the most part, no one remembers the numbers!

Answer 6

We refer to it as "Pluto"- the only time when a certain number is used- such as the New Galatic Catalog ("NGG") is when we're programing in a specific coordinate looking for a specific item. Most of the large items are listed as NGC or "Mesmers" numbers- such as M31 I believe is the listing for the Orion Nebula.

Answer 7

They refer to it as "The artist formerly known as Pluto".

Answer 8

They still call it Pluto.

Answer 9

they call it either Pluto or 134340 Pluto.

Answer 10

134340Pluto