Asminor planet discoveries are confirmed, they are given a permanent number by theIAU'sMinor Planet Center (MPC), and the discoverers can then submit names for them, following the IAU'snaming conventions. The list below concerns those minor planets in the specified number-range that have received names, and explains the meanings of those names.
Based onPaul Herget'sThe 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 thepublic domain: SBDB New namings may only beadded 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]
TheNational Association for the Protection of the Sky and Nightly Environments in France (ANPCEN) was established in March 1999. Presently 581 communities have joined the association. RecentlyStrasbourg, a city of 300,000 inhabitants, has signed the association's charter.
Jean Louis Rault (born 1949) is a French amateur radio astronomer who was president of the radioastronomy commission of theSociété Astronomique de France from 2008 to 2019. He is responsible for the radio part of the Vigie-Ciel network, which detects the echoes of the GRAVES space surveillance radar.
Azar Khalatbari (1961–2022) was a French-Iranian science writer who obtained a PhD in geophysics and a Master's degree in the history of science. She specialized in physics, astrophysics, earth sciences and mathematics. Her articles and books helped make these disciplines readily accessible to wide audiences.
Morris Podolak (born 1949) is a professor of planetary sciences at Tel-Aviv University whose long career includes studying giant planet formation, protostellar discs, and the structure and evolution of comets.
Nuno Peixinho (born 1971) from the University of Coimbra (Portugal) is a planetary scientist who studies the chemical composition of small bodies across the Solar System.
Yuki Kajiura (born 1965) is a Japanese composer and musical producer. She has composed the soundtrack music for many anime films and has formed the musical groupsFictionJunction andKalafina.
Stefanie N. Milam (born 1980) is an astrochemist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her expertise ranges across the electromagnetic spectrum and from interstellar ices to evolved stars to solar system objects. She is Deputy Project Scientist for Planetary Science for theJames Webb Space Telescope.
František Zloch (born 1949) is a retired solar observer of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Ondřejov. He conducted systematic observations of solar activity from 1981 to 2011, which were used by the International Patrol Service. He was also the founder and first director of the Rimavská Sobota Observatory (1975–1981).
Kalafina, a Japanese vocal group formed in 2007 by composerYuki Kajiura to produce the soundtrack music for the anime "Kara no Kyoukai", also known in English as "The Garden of Sinners". Their popularity has grown and they are now a neoclassical pop group presenting frequent concerts in Japan and internationally.
William Kwong Yu Yeung (born 1960), a Canadian amateur astronomer and one of the world's most prolific amateurdiscoverers of minor planets and comets. He has also found J002E3, believed to be the Apollo 12 S-IVB stage.
Akira Tsuchiyama (born 1954) is a professor at Ritsumeikan University (Japan) and leader of the Itokawa sample analysis for the Hayabusa spacecraft mission. He specializes in studying primitive solar-system materials and is a pioneer for the three-dimensional study of materials using X-ray microtomography.
Paul Jorden (born 1951) has a unique career that has included leadership positions in the scientific community (Royal Greenwich Observatory) and industry (e2v technologies). His teams have developed state-of-the-art imaging sensors and applied them to ground-based and space astronomy over a period of more than three decades.
John Tonry (born 1953), of the University of Hawaii, has worked at the cutting edge of science and technology in astronomy. He developed the orthogonal transfer CCD concept, and a new method for extragalactic distance determinations, and was on the team that made the Nobel Prize winning discovery of dark energy.
Stephen Holland (born 1956), of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is a pioneer in the development of silicon detectors for medical imaging, x-ray photon sciences, astronomy, and high-energy physics.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain: SBDB New namings may only beadded 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]