lost asteroid

The term "lost asteroid" refers to a numbered asteroid that could not be located after its initial discovery due to insufficient observational data to accurately determine its orbit. This issue was more prevalent in the past, with the last lost numbered asteroid, (719) Albert, being recovered in 2000 after an 89-year absence. While new asteroids are still sometimes initially lost, they are not assigned numbers until their orbits are reliably known.1

Asteroids are celestial bodies that orbit the Sun, primarily found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The first asteroid, Ceres, was discovered in 1801. Over time, the number of known asteroids has grown significantly, with over a million identified by the early 21st century.2