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]
Robert Schottland (born 1948) is a software and database developer who has made significant contributions to projects at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. These projects include observational programs to study near-Earth asteroids and meteors, and Lowell's "astorb" database of minor planets.
Aaron Kingery (born 1987) is an astronomer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. He develops meteor observation hardware and meteor analysis software for NASA's meteor programs.
Frédéric Édouard Koby (1890–1969), Swiss ophthalmologist and paleontologist, specialist on the cave bear. He is the son of Frédéric Louis Koby (1852–1930)
Althea Moorhead (born 1981) is a research astronomer at NASA. She helps to bridge the gap between meteor astronomy and engineering by characterizing meteoroid populations, modeling their dynamics, and developing software that can be used to predict impacts on spacecraft.
Adeline Gicquel Brodtke (born 1985) is a French scientist, working as a researcher at the University of Maryland. She specializes in modeling gas and dust activity of comets.
Joel C. Sercel (born 1960) is a leader in the development of technology to extract Lunar and asteroidal resources. He has had a long career in advanced engineering with JPL, the USAF, aerospace consulting, and teaching at Caltech.
Francesco Bertola (born 1937), Italian author, professor of astrophysics and director of the astronomy department at Padua University. His research includes expert in galactic structure and dynamics. He is also known for the discovery of the new class oftype Ib supernovae
Michael Penston (1943–1990), a British observational astronomer atRoyal Greenwich Observatory, who studiedNGC 4151 and determined the mass of the central object. The name for this minor planet was proposed by Keith Tritton(see below).
Marina Watanabe (1990–2019), together with her mother Yoshie, acted as a manager/producer for her father, Junichi Watanabe on his outreach activities in astronomy and planetary sciences.
The number 46610 translates to the hexadecimal B612 (the French "bé-six-douze" stands for "b-six-twelve"), the designation of the fictitious minor planet on which Saint-Exupéry'sLittle Prince lived
The RISE (Research of Interior Structure and Evolution of solar system bodies) project of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan aims to elucidate the origin and evolution of the Moon, planets and their moons mainly through geodetic approaches by space missions.
From 1974 to 2006, Anita Sohus (born 1951) undertook multiple roles on Voyager and Galileo in JPL's Outreach and Education Office, communicating NASA's science results to the science community and the public
Giorgio Interrante (born 1969) an Italian amateur astronomer and member of the astrometry team at Beppe Forti Astronomical Observatory (K83) inMontelupo Fiorentino, Tuscany.
Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa (Indonesia) is an active volcano that exploded in April 1815. It was the most powerful eruption in recorded history, and resulted in a brief period of significant worldwide climate change, including the "Year without a Summer" (1816).
Jay W. McMahon (born 1982) has carried out fundamental research on the dynamics and evolutionary behavior of binary asteroids. His work has laid the foundation for a rigorous understanding of the Binary YORP effect and the determination of material parameters of binary asteroids based on remote observations.
Suzan Edwards (born 1951) is the L. Clark Seelye Professor of Astronomy at Smith College. Edwards studies and has made significant contributions to the understanding of the formation of stars, the evolution of planet-forming disks, and the role played by disk- and stellar-driven winds during the early phases of stellar evolution.
Brady John Haran (b. 1976) is an Australian-British video journalist and filmmaker. On his YouTube channels, which includePeriodic Videos andNumberphile, he frequently collaborates with academics and other educational YouTubers.
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]