What would you classify Vesta as?

[Zadoc]

http://www.wepolls.com/r/1392006/Is-Vesta-an-asteroid,-dwarf-planet,-a-planet,-or-something-else">POLL: Is Vesta an asteroid, dwarf planet, a planet, or something else?

So, here's an object that orbits a star, it's relatively round, it has a differential composition, has, at one time, had volcanic activity. Some call it an asteroid, some prominent news agencies call it a "mini moon," but if it orbited between Earth and Venus instead of in the asteroid belt, wouldn't it be called a planet? I hope this mission helps to redefine what the IAEA considers a planet and not.

[baldguy]

1. It's a planet: it's round & orbits the Sun.

I don't go in for any of this "dwarf" planet nonsense.

[SpiralHawk]

2. Keepers of the Sacred Flame

[customerserviceguy]

3. An asteroid

I accept that there are differences between them. It's in the asteroid belt, and it's fairly small, that makes it an asteroid rather than a planet to me.

[Zadoc]

5. Really, an asteroid?

At the very least a dwarf planet.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Yes, really

It's a distinction without that much of a difference. There's an asteroid belt, and this object is within it. If Pluto isn't a planet, I don't see how this hunk of rock can be one, either.

[markbark]

4. Vesta?

It's a big, effin' rock orbiting the sun!

[mysuzuki2]

6. an Italian motor scooter?

[Odin2005]

7. A minor planet.

[Ready4Change]

9. A floor wax? A dessert topping?

530 kilometers of planet smashing death?

All three?

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

10. It is what is left over after a civilization is infected with Republicans

[Grown2Hate]

11. It's an object that hundreds of millions of years from now might be a complete planet.

(if it coalesces with enough more matter from the asteroid belt to differentiate itself in such a manner) It's not a planet now for the same reason Pluto isn't... it's just the largest rock in it's orbital family.