The following is a list of numbered
minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
s in ascending numerical order. With the exception of
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
s, minor planets are all
small bodies in the Solar System, including
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
s,
distant objects and
dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...
s. The catalog consists of hundreds of pages, each containing 1,000 minor planets. Every year, the
Minor Planet Center
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Function
T ...
, which operates on behalf of the
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
, publishes thousands of newly numbered minor planets in its ''
Minor Planet Circular
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Function
...
s'' ''(see
index
Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index''
* The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...
)''.
, there are
619,150 numbered minor planets (secured discoveries) out of a total of 1,233,701 observed small Solar System bodies, with the remainder being
unnumbered minor planets and comets.
The catalog's first object is , discovered by
Giuseppe Piazzi
Giuseppe Piazzi ( , ; 16 July 1746 – 22 July 1826) was an Italian Catholic priest of the Theatine order, mathematician, and astronomer. He established an observatory at Palermo, now the '' Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo – Giuseppe S ...
in 1801, while its best-known entry is
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
, listed as . The vast majority (97.3%) of minor planets are asteroids from the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, c ...
(the catalog uses a color code to indicate a body's
dynamical classification). There are more than a thousand different
minor-planet discoverers observing from a growing
list of registered observatories. In terms of numbers, the most prolific discoverers are
Spacewatch
The Spacewatch Project is an astronomical survey that specializes in the study of minor planets, including various types of asteroids and comets at University of Arizona telescopes on Kitt Peak near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. The Spa ...
,
LINEAR
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...
,
MLS,
NEAT
Neat may refer to:
* Neat (bartending), a single, unmixed liquor served in a rocks glass
* Neat, an old term for horned oxen
* Neat Records, a British record label
* Neuroevolution of augmenting topologies (NEAT), a genetic algorithm (GA) for th ...
and
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone technolo ...
. There are also
23,542 named minor planets mostly after
people, places and figures from mythology and fiction,
which account for only of all numbered catalog entries. and are currently the lowest-numbered unnamed and highest-numbered named minor planets, respectively.
It is expected that the upcoming survey by the
Vera C. Rubin Observatory
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, previously referred to as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), is an astronomical observatory currently under construction in Chile. Its main task will be carrying out a synoptic astronomical survey, the L ...
(LSST) will discover another 5 million minor planets during the next ten years—almost a tenfold increase from current numbers.
While all main-belt asteroids with a diameter above 10 kilometers have already been discovered, there might be as many as 10 trillion 1-meter-sized asteroids or larger out to the orbit of Jupiter; and more than a trillion minor planets in the
Kuiper belt
The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 tim ...
.
For minor planets grouped by a particular aspect or property, ''see ''.
Description of partial lists
The list of minor planets consists of more than 600 partial lists, each containing 1000 minor planets grouped into 10 tables. The data is sourced from the
Minor Planet Center
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Function
T ...
(MPC) and expanded with data from the
JPL SBDB
The JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB) is an astronomy database about small Solar System bodies. It is maintained by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and NASA and provides data for all known asteroids and several comets, including orbital parameters an ...
(mean-diameter), Johnston's archive (sub-classification) and others ''(see detailed field descriptions below)''. For an overview of all existing partial lists, ''see ''.
The information given for a minor planet includes a
permanent and
provisional designation ''()'', a citation that links to the
meanings of minor planet names
This is a list of minor planets which have been officially named by the Working Group Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The list consists of partial pages, each covering a number range of 1,000 bodies c ...
(only if named), the discovery date, location, and credited
discoverers ''( and )'', a category with a more refined classification than the principal grouping represented by the background color ''()'', a mean-diameter, sourced from JPL's
SBDB or otherwise calculated estimates in italics ''()'', and a reference (Ref) to the corresponding pages at MPC and JPL SBDB.
The MPC may credit one or several astronomers, a
survey or similar program, or even the
observatory site with the discovery. In the first column of the table, an existing stand-alone article is linked in boldface, while (self-)redirects are never linked. Discoverers, discovery site and category are only linked if they differ from the preceding catalog entry.
Example
, -bgcolor=#d6d6d6
, 189001 , , 4889 P-L , , — , , 24 September 1960 , ,
Palomar , ,
PLS , , — , , align=right , 3.4 km , ,
, -id=002 bgcolor=#fefefe
, 189002 , , 6760 P-L , , — , , 24 September 1960 , , Palomar , , PLS , ,
NYS , , align=right data-sort-value="0.96" , ''960 m'' , ,
, -id=003 bgcolor=#d6d6d6
, 189003 , , 3009 T-3 , , — , , 16 October 1977 , , Palomar , , PLS , , — , , align=right , ''5.1 km'' , ,
, -id=004 bgcolor=#C2FFFF
, 189004 Capys , , 3184 T-3 , , , , 16 October 1977 , , Palomar , , PLS , ,
L5 , , align=right , ''12 km'' , ,
, -id=005 bgcolor=#E9E9E9
, 189005 , , 5176 T-3 , , — , , 16 October 1977 , , Palomar , , PLS , , — , , align=right , ''3.5 km'' , ,
The example above shows five catalog entries from
one of the partial lists. All five asteroids were discovered at
Palomar Observatory
Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...
by the
Palomar–Leiden survey
The Palomar–Leiden survey (PLS) was a successful astronomical survey to study faint minor planets in a collaboration between the U.S Palomar Observatory and the Dutch Leiden Observatory, and resulted in the discovery of thousands of asteroids, ...
(PLS). The MPC directly credits the survey's principal investigators, that is, the astronomers
Cornelis van Houten
Cornelis Johannes van Houten (18 February 1920 – 24 August 2002) was a Dutch astronomer, sometimes referred to as Kees van Houten.
Early life and education
Born in The Hague, he spent his entire career at Leiden University except for a brief p ...
,
Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld
Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld (; 21 October 1921 – 30 March 2015) was a Dutch astronomer.
Background
In a jointly credited trio with Tom Gehrels and her husband Cornelis Johannes van Houten, she was the discoverer of many thousands of astero ...
and
Tom Gehrels
Anton M.J. "Tom" Gehrels (February 21, 1925 – July 11, 2011) was a Dutch–American astronomer, Professor of Planetary Sciences, and Astronomer at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Biography
Youth and education
Gehrels was born at H ...
. (This is the only instance where the list of minor planets diverges from the ''Discovery Circumstances'' in the official MPC list.
)
189004 Capys, discovered on 16 October 1977, is the only named minor planet among these five. Its background color indicates that it is a
Jupiter trojan
The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each trojan librates around one of Jupiter's stable Lagrange p ...
(from the
Trojan camp
This is a list of Jupiter trojans that lie in the Trojan camp, an elongated curved region around the trailing Lagrangian point, 60° behind Jupiter.
All the asteroids at the trailing point have names corresponding to participants on the Trojan ...
at Jupiter's ), estimated to be approximately 12 kilometers in diameter. All other objects are smaller asteroids from the inner (white), central (light-grey) and outer regions (dark grey) of the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, c ...
. The provisional designation for all objects is an uncommon
survey designation
Provisional designation in astronomy is the naming convention applied to astronomical objects immediately following their discovery. The provisional designation is usually superseded by a permanent designation once a reliable orbit has been calcu ...
.
Designation
After discovery, minor planets generally receive a
provisional designation
Provisional designation in astronomy is the naming convention applied to astronomical objects immediately following their discovery. The provisional designation is usually superseded by a permanent designation once a reliable orbit has been calc ...
, e.g. , then a leading sequential number in parenthesis, e.g. , turning it into a permanent designation (numbered minor planet). Optionally, a name can be given, replacing the provisional part of the designation, e.g. . (On Wikipedia, named minor planets also drop their parenthesis.)
In modern times, a minor planet receives a sequential number only after it has been observed several times over at least 4 oppositions. Minor planets whose orbits are not (yet) precisely known are known by their provisional designation. This rule was not necessarily followed in earlier times, and some bodies received a number but subsequently became
lost minor planets. The 2000 recovery of , which had been lost for nearly 89 years, eliminated the last numbered lost asteroid.
Only after a number is assigned is the minor planet eligible to receive a name. Usually the discoverer has up to 10 years to pick a name; many minor planets now remain unnamed. Especially towards the end of the twentieth century, large-scale automated asteroid discovery programs such as
LINEAR
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...
have increased the pace of discoveries so much that the vast majority of minor planets will most likely never receive names.
For these reasons, the sequence of numbers only approximately matches the timeline of discovery. In extreme cases, such as lost minor planets, there may be a considerable mismatch: for instance the high-numbered was originally discovered in 1937, but it was a lost until 2003. Only after it was rediscovered could its orbit be established and a number assigned.
Discoverers
The MPC credits more than 1000 professional and amateur astronomers as
discoverers of minor planets
This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 num ...
. Many of them have discovered only a few minor planets or even just co-discovered a single one. Moreover, a discoverer does not need to be a human being. There are about 300 programs, surveys and observatories
credited as discoverers. Among these, a small group of U.S. programs and surveys actually account for most of all discoveries made so far ''(see pie chart)''. As the total of numbered minor planets is growing by the tens of thousands every year, all statistical figures are constantly changing. In contrast to the Top 10 discoverers displayed in this articles, the MPC summarizes the total of discoveries somewhat differently, that is by a distinct group of discoverers. For example, bodies discovered in the
Palomar–Leiden Survey
The Palomar–Leiden survey (PLS) was a successful astronomical survey to study faint minor planets in a collaboration between the U.S Palomar Observatory and the Dutch Leiden Observatory, and resulted in the discovery of thousands of asteroids, ...
are directly credited to the program's principal investigators.
Discovery site
Observatories, telescopes and
surveys that report
astrometric observations of
small Solar System bodies
A small Solar System body (SSSB) is an object in the Solar System that is neither a planet, a dwarf planet, nor a natural satellite. The term was first defined in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as follows: "All other objects, ...
to the Minor Planet Center receive a numeric or alphanumeric
MPC code such as
675 for the
Palomar Observatory
Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...
, or
G96 for the
Mount Lemmon Survey
Mount Lemmon Survey (MLS) is a part of the Catalina Sky Survey with observatory code G96. MLS uses a cassegrain reflector telescope (with 10560x10560-pixel camera at the f/1.6 prime focus, for a five square degree field of view) operated by ...
. On numbering, the MPC may directly credit such an observatory or program as the discoverer of an object, rather than one or several astronomers.
Category
In this catalog, minor planets are classified into one of 8 principal orbital groups and highlighted with a distinct color. These are:
The vast majority of minor planets are evenly distributed between the inner-, central and outer parts of the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, c ...
, which are separated by the two
Kirkwood gap
A Kirkwood gap is a gap or dip in the distribution of the semi-major axes (or equivalently of the orbital periods) of the orbits of main-belt asteroids. They correspond to the locations of orbital resonances with Jupiter.
For example, there ...
s at 2.5 and 2.82
AU. Nearly 97.5% of all minor planets are main-belt asteroids (MBA), while
Jupiter trojans,
Mars-crossing and
near-Earth asteroids
A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun ( perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU ...
each account for less than 1% of the overall population. Only a small number of
distant minor planets, that is the
centaurs
A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse.
Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as bein ...
and
trans-Neptunian object
A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has a semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (au).
Typically ...
s, have been numbered so far. In the partial lists, table column "category" further refines this principal grouping:
* main-belt asteroids show their
family membership based on the synthetic
hierarchical clustering method
An asteroid family is a population of asteroids that share similar proper orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. The members of the families are thought to be fragments of past asteroid collisions. An ...
by
Nesvorný (2014),
*
resonant
Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscilla ...
asteroids are displayed by their numerical ratio and include the
Hildas (3:2),
Cybeles (7:4),
Thules (4:3) and
Griquas
The Griquas (; af, Griekwa, often confused with ''!Orana'', which is written as ''Korana'' or ''Koranna'') are a subgroup of heterogeneous former Khoe-speaking nations in Southern Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the C ...
(2:1), while the Jupiter trojans (1:1) display whether they belong to the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
() or
Trojan camp
This is a list of Jupiter trojans that lie in the Trojan camp, an elongated curved region around the trailing Lagrangian point, 60° behind Jupiter.
All the asteroids at the trailing point have names corresponding to participants on the Trojan ...
(),
*
Hungaria asteroids
The Hungaria asteroids, also known as the Hungaria group, are a dynamical group of asteroids in the asteroid belt which orbit the Sun with a semi-major axis (longest radius of an ellipse) between 1.78 and 2.00 astronomical units (AU). They are the ...
(H), are labelled in italics (''H''), when they are not members of the collisional family
* near-Earth objects are divided into the
Aten
Aten also Aton, Atonu, or Itn ( egy, jtn, ''reconstructed'' ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The Aten was the disc of the sun and originally an aspect o ...
(ATE),
Amor (AMO),
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
(APO), and
Atira (ATI) group, with some of them being
potentially hazardous asteroids (PHA),
and/or larger than one kilometer in diameter (
+1km) as determined by the MPC.
* trans-Neptunian objects are divided into dynamical subgroups including
cubewano
A classical Kuiper belt object, also called a cubewano ( "QB1-o"), is a low-eccentricity Kuiper belt object (KBO) that orbits beyond Neptune and is not controlled by an orbital resonance with Neptune. Cubewanos have orbits with semi-major axe ...
s (
hot or cold),
scattered disc objects,
plutino
In astronomy, the plutinos are a dynamical group of trans-Neptunian objects that orbit in 2:3 mean-motion resonance with Neptune. This means that for every two orbits a plutino makes, Neptune orbits three times. The dwarf planet Pluto is the l ...
s and other
Neptunian resonances,
*
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
-like and/or retrograde objects with a
TJupiter value below 2 are tagged with
damocloid
Damocloids are a class of minor planets such as 5335 Damocles and 1996 PW that have Halley-type or long-period highly eccentric orbits typical of periodic comets such as Halley's Comet, but without showing a cometary coma or tail. ...
,
*
other unusual objects based on MPC's and Johnston's lists are labelled
unusual,
*
binary and
trinary minor planet
A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. , there are 457 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons (and binary objects, in general) are importa ...
s with companions are tagged with "moon" and link to their corresponding entry in
minor-planet moon
A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. , there are 457 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons (and binary objects, in general) are importan ...
,
* objects with an exceptionally long or short
rotation period
The rotation period of a celestial object (e.g., star, gas giant, planet, moon, asteroid) may refer to its sidereal rotation period, i.e. the time that the object takes to complete a single revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the ...
are tagged with "slow" (period of 100+ hours) or "fast" (period of less than 2.2 hours) and link to their corresponding entry in
List of slow rotators and
List of fast rotators, respectively.
* minor planets which also received a periodic-comet number (such as ) link to the
List of numbered comets
This is a list of periodic comets that were numbered by the Minor Planet Center after having been observed on at least two occasions. Their orbital periods vary from 3.2 to 366 years. there are 436 numbered comets (1P–436P), most of them being ...
:
(a) NEO-subgroups with number of members:
Aten
Aten also Aton, Atonu, or Itn ( egy, jtn, ''reconstructed'' ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The Aten was the disc of the sun and originally an aspect o ...
(255),
Amor (1,275),
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
(1,566) and
Atira (8) asteroids.
:
(b) Including 35 unclassified bodies: ().
:
(c) This chart has been created using a classification scheme adopted from and with data provided by the
JPL Small-Body Database
The JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB) is an astronomy database about small Solar System bodies. It is maintained by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and NASA and provides data for all known asteroids and several comets, including orbital parameters an ...
.
Diameter
If available, a minor planet's mean
diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid f ...
in meters (m) or kilometers (km) is taken from the
NEOWISE
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 201 ...
mission of NASA's
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2 ...
, which the
Small-Body Database has also adopted.
Mean diameters are rounded to two significant figures if smaller than 100 kilometers. Estimates are in italics and calculated from a magnitude-to-diameter conversion, using an assumed
albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refle ...
derived from the body's orbital parameters or, if available, from a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
-specific mean albedo ''(also see
asteroid family table)''.
Main index
This is an overview of all existing partial lists of numbered minor planets (LoMP). Each table stands for 100,000 minor planets, each cell for a specific partial list of 1,000 sequentially numbered bodies. The data is sourced from the
Minor Planet Center
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Function
T ...
.
For an introduction, ''see ''.
Numberings 1–100,000
Numberings 100,001–200,000
Numberings 200,001–300,000
Numberings 300,001–400,000
Numberings 400,001–500,000
Numberings 500,001–600,000
Numberings 600,001–700,000
Specific lists
The following are lists of minor planets by physical properties, orbital properties, or discovery circumstances:
*
List of exceptional asteroids
The following is a collection of lists of asteroids of the Solar System that are exceptional in some way, such as their size or orbit. For the purposes of this article, "asteroid" refers to minor planets out to the orbit of Neptune, and includes ...
(physical properties)
**
List of slow rotators (minor planets)
This is a list of slow rotators—minor planets that have an exceptionally long rotation period. This period, typically given in hours, and sometimes called rotation rate or spin rate, is a fundamental standard physical property for minor p ...
**
List of fast rotators (minor planets)
This is a list of fast rotators—"minor planets" (which includes asteroids) that have an List of exceptional asteroids, exceptionally short rotation period, also called "rotation rate" or "spin rate". In some cases the rotation period is n ...
**
List of tumblers (small Solar System bodies)
This is a list of tumblers, minor planets, comets and natural satellites whose angular momentum vector is far from the principal axis of inertia, so that they do not rotate in a fairly constant manner with a constant period. Instead of rotating ar ...
*
List of instrument-resolved minor planets
*
List of Jupiter trojans (Greek camp)
*
List of Jupiter trojans (Trojan camp)
*
List of minor planets visited by spacecraft
The following tables list all minor planets and comets that have been visited by robotic spacecraft.
List of minor planets visited by spacecraft
A total of 17 minor planets (asteroids, dwarf planets, and Kuiper belt objects) have been visi ...
*
List of minor planet moons
A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. , there are 457 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons (and binary objects, in general) are importa ...
*
List of minor-planet groups
A minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid. It is customary to na ...
*
List of named minor planets (alphabetical)
This is a list of named minor planets in an alphabetical, case-insensitive order grouped by the first letter of their name. New namings, typically proposed by the discoverer and approved by the Working Group Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN) o ...
*
List of named minor planets (numerical)
This is a list of named minor planets in numerical order. , it contains a total of 23,542 named bodies. Minor planets for which no article exists redirect to the list of minor planets ''(see )''.
Statistics
See also
* List of minor ...
*
List of possible dwarf planets
The number of dwarf planets in the Solar System is unknown. Estimates have run as high as 200 in the Kuiper belt and over 10,000 in the region beyond.
However, consideration of the surprisingly low densities of many large trans-Neptunian objects ...
*
List of centaurs (small Solar System bodies)
The following is a list of centaurs, a group of non-resonant small Solar System bodies whose orbit around the Sun lie typically between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune (5 to 30 AU). Centaurs are minor planets with characteristics of comets, an ...
*
List of trans-Neptunian objects
This is a list of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), which are minor planets in the Solar System that orbit the Sun at a greater distance on average than Neptune, that is, their orbit has a semi-major axis greater than 30.1 astronomical units (AU) ...
*
List of unnumbered minor planets
The following is a list of unnumbered minor planets in chronological order of their principal provisional designation. Contrary to their numbered counterparts, unnumbered minor planets have a poorly determined orbit due to insufficient observ ...
**
List of unnumbered trans-Neptunian objects
*
Meanings of minor planet names
This is a list of minor planets which have been officially named by the Working Group Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The list consists of partial pages, each covering a number range of 1,000 bodies c ...
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List of minor planets named after people
This is a list of minor planets named after people, both real and fictional.
Science
Astronomers
Amateur
* 340 Eduarda ( Heinrich Eduard von Lade, German)
* 792 Metcalfia (Joel Hastings Metcalf, American)
* 828 Lindemannia ( Adolph Friedrich Li ...
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List of minor planets named after places
This is a list of minor planets named after places, organized by continent.
Africa
* 1193 Africa (Africa)
Countries of Africa
* 1197 Rhodesia (Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe)
* 1213 Algeria (Algeria)
* 1268 Libya (Libya)
* 1278 Kenya (Kenya)
* 1279 Ugan ...
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List of minor planets named after rivers
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2013
This is a list of minor planets named after rivers, organized by continent.
Africa
* 1032 Pafuri ( Pafuri Triangle, South Africa)
* 1264 Letaba ( Letaba River, South Africa)
* 1305 Pongola (Pongola River, Sout ...
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List of minor planets named after animals and plants
This is a list of minor planets named after animals and plants.
Animals
Plants
See also
* List of minor planets
* List of minor planets named after people
* List of minor planets named after places
* List of minor planets named af ...
See also
*
Lists of astronomical objects
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Binary asteroid
A binary asteroid is a system of two asteroids orbiting their common barycenter. The binary nature of 243 Ida was discovered when the Galileo spacecraft flew by the asteroid in 1993. Since then numerous binary asteroids and several triple a ...
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Dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...
s
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Kuiper belt
The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 tim ...
(A major ring of bodies in the Solar System, around 30-60 AU and home to Pluto)
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Minor-planet moon
A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. , there are 457 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons (and binary objects, in general) are importan ...
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Trans-Neptunian object
A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has a semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (au).
Typically ...
Other lists
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List of comets
*
Notes
References
Further reading
* ''Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, 5th ed.:
Prepared on Behalf of Commission 20 Under the Auspices of the International Astronomical Union'',
Lutz D. Schmadel
Lutz Dieter Schmadel (2 July 1942, in Berlin – 21 October 2016) was a German astronomer and a prolific discoverer of asteroids, who worked at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ARI) of the University of Heidelberg.
His special interest was t ...
,
* ''
The Names of the Minor Planets
Paul Herget (January 30, 1908 – August 27, 1981) was an American astronomer and director of the Cincinnati Observatory, who established the Minor Planet Center after World War II.
Career
Herget taught astronomy at the University of Cincinna ...
'',
Paul Herget
Paul Herget (January 30, 1908 – August 27, 1981) was an American astronomer and director of the Cincinnati Observatory, who established the Minor Planet Center after World War II.
Career
Herget taught astronomy at the University of Cincinn ...
, 1968,
External links
How Many Solar System Bodies Jet Propulsion Laboratory Small-Body Database
JPL Minor Planet Database for physical and orbital data(of any Small Solar System Body or dwarf planet)
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; Minor Planet Center
(minor planets by number)
CNEOS ''Center for Near-Earth Object Studies'', NASA
PDS Asteroid Data Archive*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Minor planets
Lists of small Solar System bodies