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 |
---|---|---|---|
233292 Brianschmidt | 2006 BV | Brian Schmidt (born 1967), American physicist, who won the who the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe, using supernovae as standard candles | JPL · 233292 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
233383 Assisneto | 2006 EP | Vicente Ferreira de Assis Neto (1936–2004), a Brazilian amateur astronomer. | JPL · 233383 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
233472 Moorcroft | 2006 KB143 | Donald Ross Moorcroft (born 1935), a Canadian physicist. | JPL · 233472 |
233488 Cosandey | 2006 YG | David A. Cosandey (born 1965) is a Swiss physicist. He has developed a theory of science explaining the rises and declines of the main scientific disciplines, including astronomy, in the history of the West, the Middle East, India and China. | IAU · 233488 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
233522 Moye | 2007 HB4 | Marcel Moye (1873–1939), a founding member of the Flammarion Astronomical Society of Montpellier, which administered the Babote Observatory from 1902 to 1922. | JPL · 233522 |
233547 Luxun | 2007 JR27 | Lu Xun (or Lu Hsün), the pen name of Zhou Shuren (1881–1936), one of the major Chinese writers of the twentieth century. | JPL · 233547 |
233559 Pizzetti | 2007 PJ | Gianpaolo Pizzetti (born 1961), an Italian amateur astronomer and discoverer of minor planets at the Lumezzane Observatory ( 130 ) | JPL · 233559 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
233653 Rether | 2008 QR | Hagen Rether (born 1969), a Romanian-born German political cabaret artist who studied music at the Folkwang University of the Arts | JPL · 233653 |
233661 Alytus | 2008 QZ32 | The city of Alytus in southern Lithuania | JPL · 233661 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
233707 Alfons | 2008 SA83 | Emmanuel Peterfalvi (born 1967), known as "Alfons", is a French-German cabaret artist. | JPL · 233707 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
233880 Urbanpriol | 2008 WF93 | Urban Priol (born 1961), a German cabaret artist. | JPL · 233880 |
233893 Honthyhanna | 2008 YW5 | Hanna Honthy (1893–1978), a Hungarian opera singer and actress. | JPL · 233893 |
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
233943 Falera | 2008 YW5 | The Swiss mountain village of Falera, location of the Mirasteilas Observatory where this asteroid was discovered | JPL · 233943 |
233967 Vierkant | 2010 BN4 | Gisela Vierkant (1919–), mother of the discoverer Rainer Kracht | JPL · 233967 |