Giuseppe Piazzi in the context of List of asteroids

Ceres (minor-planet designation: 1 Ceres) is a dwarf planet in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was the first known asteroid, discovered on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Astronomical Observatory in Sicily, and announced as a new planet. Ceres was later classified as an asteroid and more recently as a dwarf planet, the only one not beyond the orbit of Neptune and the largest that does not have a moon.

Ceres's diameter is about a quarter that of the Moon. Its small size means that even at its brightest it is too dim to be seen by the naked eye, except under extremely dark skies. Its apparent magnitude ranges from 6.7 to 9.3, peaking at opposition (when it is closest to Earth) once every 15- to 16-month synodic period. As a result, its surface features are barely visible even with the most powerful telescopes, and little was known about it until the robotic NASA spacecraft Dawn approached Ceres for its orbital mission in 2015.

The following is a list of minor planets in ascending numerical order. Minor planets are small bodies in the Solar System: asteroids, distant objects, and dwarf planets, but not comets. As of 2022, the vast majority (97.3%) are asteroids from the asteroid belt. Their discoveries are certified by the Minor Planet Center, which assigns them numbers on behalf of the International Astronomical Union. Every year, the Center publishes thousands of newly numbered minor planets in its Minor Planet Circulars (see index). As of October 2025, the 875,150 numbered minor planets made up more than half of the 1,474,903 observed small Solar System bodies, of which the rest were unnumbered minor planets and comets.

The catalog's first object is 1 Ceres, discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801, while its best-known entry is Pluto, listed as 134340 Pluto. Both are among the 3.1% of numbered minor planets with names, mostly of people, places, and figures from mythology and fiction. (4596) 1981 QB and 841529 Jonahwoodhams are currently the lowest-numbered unnamed and highest-numbered named minor planets, respectively.

61 Cygni /ˈsɪɡni/ is a binary star system in the northern constellation Cygnus, consisting of a pair of K-type dwarf stars that orbit each other in a period of about 659 years. Of apparent magnitude 5.20 and 6.05, respectively, they can be seen with binoculars in city skies or with the naked eye in rural areas without light pollution.

61 Cygni first attracted the attention of astronomers when its large proper motion was first demonstrated by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1804. In 1838, Friedrich Bessel measured its distance from Earth at about 10.4 light-years, very close to the actual value of about 11.4 light-years; this was the first distance estimate for any star other than the Sun, and the first star to have its stellar parallax measured. Among all stars or stellar systems listed in the latest Gaia catalogues, 61 Cygni has the sixth-highest proper motion, and the highest among all naked-eye visible stars.