As minor planet discoveries are confirmed, they are given a permanent number by the IAU's Minor Planet Center (MPC), and the discoverers can then submit names for them, following the IAU's naming conventions. The list below concerns those minor planets in the specified number-range that have received names, and explains the meanings of those names.
Official naming citations of newly named small Solar System bodies are approved and published in a bulletin by IAU's Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN). [1] Before May 2021, citations were published in MPC's Minor Planet Circulars for many decades. [2] Recent citations can also be found on the JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB). [3] Until his death in 2016, German astronomer Lutz D. Schmadel compiled these citations into the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (DMP) and regularly updated the collection. [4] [5]
Based on Paul Herget's The Names of the Minor Planets , [6] Schmadel also researched the unclear origin of numerous asteroids, most of which had been named prior to World War II. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain : SBDB New namings may only be added to this list below after official publication as the preannouncement of names is condemned. [7] The WGSBN publishes a comprehensive guideline for the naming rules of non-cometary small Solar System bodies. [8]
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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There are no named minor planets in this number range |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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There are no named minor planets in this number range |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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229255 Andrewelliott | 2005 AJ | Andrew John Elliott (1946–2010), a British observer who pioneered the use of low-light devices, precision timing and video methods in observing short-lived phenomena. | JPL · 229255 |
229280 Sica | 2005 BN47 | Robert Joseph Sica (born 1956) is an American-Canadian atmospheric physicist. He was Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada from 2015 to 2022. | IAU · 229280 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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There are no named minor planets in this number range |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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229425 Grosspointner | 2005 TW50 | Peter Grosspointner (born 1960), a well-known Austrian amateur astronomer and treasurer of the Astronomischer Arbeitskreis Salzkammergut, one of Austria's largest astronomical societies. | JPL · 229425 |
229440 Filimon | 2005 UE6 | Erwin Filimon (born 1959), a well-known Austrian amateur astronomer and long-term Chairman of the Astronomischer Arbeitskreis Salzkammergut, one of Austria's largest astronomical societies. | JPL · 229440 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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There are no named minor planets in this number range |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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229614 Womack | 2006 DF59 | Maria P. Womack (born 1963) is an American astronomer at the University of Central Florida. She has made important spectroscopic contributions to understanding the chemical composition and onset of cometary activity. | JPL · 229614 |
229631 Cluny | 2006 ER | The city of Cluny is in the Saône-et-Loire department (Burgundy, France), 20 km north west of Mâcon. | JPL · 229631 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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229723 Marcoludwig | 2007 GG2 | Marco Ludwig (born 1982), a German amateur astronomer and head of the Volkshochschule Observatory in Neumünster | IAU · 229723 |
229737 Porthos | 2007 HO4 | Porthos, a fictional character in Dumas' novels The Three Musketeers , Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne . (Also see 227930 Athos and 227962 Aramis.) | JPL · 229737 |
229762 Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà | 2007 UK126 | Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà is the beautiful aardvark girl of Juǀʼhoan mythology who sometimes appears in stories as a python and sometimes as an elephant. She defends her people and punishes wrongdoers using gǁámígǁàmì spines, a raincloud full of hail, and her magical oryx horn Gǃòʼé ǃHú. The satellite is being named Gǃòʼé ǃHú. | JPL · 229762 |
229777 ENIAC | 2008 MX4 | ENIAC or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, the first general-purpose electronic computer, a Turing-complete, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems. | JPL · 229777 |
229781 Arthurmcdonald | 2008 PS1 | Arthur B. McDonald (born 1943) is a Canadian physicist who received the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of neutrino oscillations, showing that the neutrino has mass. | MPC · 229781 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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229836 Wladimarinello | 2009 QR34 | Wladimiro Marinello, Italian amateur astronomer and discoverer of minor planets | JPL · 229836 |
229864 Sichouzhilu | 2009 TC26 | Sichouzhilu (Silk Road) was an ancient network of trade and cultural transmission routes that connected Chang'an, China to the Mediterranean Sea. The Chang'an-Tianshan corridor was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2014. | JPL · 229864 |
229900 Emmagreaves | 2009 VO42 | Emma Jane Greaves (born 1976), daughter of British discoverer Norman Falla | JPL · 229900 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
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There are no named minor planets in this number range |