Are the two terms still synonymous? Or is asteroid now reserved only for rocky bodies, with minor planet as a superset including KBOs?

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Not according to me...
I would say that to be described as a planet (minor),. It needs to have gravitational forces that have formed this body into a spherical shape. Kepler Belt Objects and Asteroids can be minor planets, Cares, I seem to recall is round. Way out to the Ort cloud we have found miner planets,... Do the Wicki., search. I am sure it will reveal all for you. By the way, I could just as easily be completely wrong

My understanding is that the terms are synonymous, though I rarely see minor planet used outside of references to the Minor Planet Center.

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If one assumes that a minor planet is something that has a minor planet number, minor planets would indeed be a superset of asteroids, including KBOs (and some other stuff). The IAU suggests that the term be replaced with the egregiously unwieldy "small solar system body" - if this is supposed to mean that the terms are equivalent, it would imply that comets are minor planets while Ceres isn't one!

We do seem to have accumulated a surfeit of poorly defined terms of solar system nomenclature. I vote we adopt the classification suggested by, IIRC, Clarke, in which solar system bodies are divided into the Sun, Jupiter, and dust.

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I have seen 'Sun, Jupiter, and assorted debris' before as a description.

Well, Saturn is a third the size of Jupiter, so I would include it in the list, personally. But yeah, the 4 gas giants really do overspend the Solar System's whole mass budget don't they?

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I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

James L. Hinton: When did the asteroids become minor planets?

I've explained it before, but I will explain it again for the uninitiated. Now pay close attention, this is important: Asteroids have space pirates, planets have princesses. Minor planets have minor princesses that you can practice saving from minor threats such as bad hair days or Sarlac breath before you move on to saving a full blown princess from a major threat such as an evil galactic warlord or 70s hair.

Thank you for that trenchant scientific analysis.

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I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

Yes, wonderful. Now I don't feel bad about saying that the differences are minor.

We have to draw the line somewhere. I propose we draw it between nuclear and non-nuclear bodies.

Thus, one sun, lots of dust, including some rather large chunks we call "space-bunnies."

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Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."

So... We have a star and some gas giant Planets. A few rock solid planets and, a cluster of minor planets. Hundreds of asteroids which could be described as rocks and dust., and a great deal of gaseous mater some of which are condensed into comets. But then there's a whacking great amount of what I can only call Dark Mater. Because I do not know what it is., and haven't seen any. ya that was easy...and the rescue of princesses is not mandatory... they can fend for themselves.

One gets you Bruce Willis, the other Richard Derr.

I may have to sig this

Location, location, location.

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"Are you a mad-hatter that just types what he wishes, or have you actually any physics training?"
Occam's Ghost to Grant Hutchison.

There are tons of difference between the two.

Get it!

I'm so punny.

hi

the difference between an asteroid and a minor planet is...the spelling!!

asteroid begins with "a"!

Paul

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As I recall, the IAU definitions are eseentially...

An asteroid is a body not large enough to have made itself round under the influence of its own gravity. (How 'round' is round enough isn't specified iirc)

A minor planet is something large enough to have made itself round, (so less minor than an asteroid) but hasn't 'significantly cleared its own orbit'.

Of course, the entire thing is a farce - because we've certainly not cleared our own orbit (Earth crossing asteroids are plentiful) . Nor, indeed, has Jupiter, and the 'clearing' of an orbit is separate from being 'minor'.

Dwarf planet (Wikipedia). Like Pluto. Not minor (Wikipedia).

Pluto is also a minor planet, just for being small. That's an old term.

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Post two said this...
and a miner is one who is considered to not be of age... age for what ? or is it coal miners......

But is not the term 'dwarf planet' used now?

You're thinking of the definitions of "small solar system body" and "dwarf planet", respectively. The IAU did not define "asteroid" nor "minor planet" and recommends that the later term, at least, be abandoned.
Not in the sense of minor planet, no.

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