Dwarf planet
With the discovery of Pluto in 1930, most astronomers considered the Solar System to have nine planets, along with thousands of significantly smaller bodies (asteroids and comets). For almost 50 years Pluto was thought to be larger than Mercury, but with the discovery in 1978 of Pluto's moon Charon, it became possible to measure Pluto's mass accurately and to determine that it was much smaller than initial estimates. It was roughly one-twentieth the mass of Mercury, which made Pluto by far the smallest planet. Although it was still more than ten times as massive as the largest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres, it had one-fifth the mass of Earth's Moon. Furthermore, having some unusual characteristics, such as large orbital eccentricity and a high orbital inclination, it became evident that it was a different kind of body from any of the other planets.
(3708) 1974 FV1
As of 2018, it has not received a name. This makes "" the lowest-numbered unnamed minor planet (there are more than half a million numbered minor planets with more than 20,000 of them being named). This contrasts with the neighboring asteroid, 3707 Schröter and 3709 Polypoites, that were already named in September 1993 and April 1988, respectively (). The asteroid is the next low-numbered, unnamed minor planet.