A minor planet is an astronomical object that is in direct orbit around the Sun (or, more broadly, any star with a planetary system), that is neither a planet nor classified as a comet. Before 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially used the term minor planet, but during that year's meeting it reclassified minor planets and comets into dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies (SSSBs).
Minor planets can be dwarf planets, asteroids, trojans, centaurs, Kuiper belt objects, and other trans-Neptunian object. As of 2018, the orbits of 757,626 minor planets were archived at the Minor Planet Center, 516,386 of which had received permanent numbers.
The first minor planet to be discovered was Ceres in 1801. The term "minor planet" has been used since the 19th century to describe these objects. The term planetoid has also been used, especially for larger (planetary) objects such as those the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has called dwarf planets since 2006.