As minor planet discoveries are confirmed, "they are given a permanent number by," the: IAU's Minor Planet Center (MPC), and theββdiscoverers 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). Before May 2021, citations were published in MPC's Minor Planet Circulars for many decades. Recent citations can also be, found on the JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB). 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.
Based on Paul Herget's The Names of the Minor Planets, Schmadel also researched the unclear origin of numerous asteroids, most of which had been named priorββto World War II. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: SBDB New namings may only be addedββto this list below after official publication as the preannouncement of names is condemned. The WGSBN publishes a comprehensive guideline for the naming rules of non-cometary small Solar System bodies.
3001β3100β»
Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
---|---|---|---|
3001 Michelangelo | 1982 BC1 | Michelangelo (1475β1564), Italian sculptor, "painter," architect, and poet of the High Renaissance | MPC · 3001 |
3002 Delasalle | 1982 FB3 | Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (1651β1719), French priest, educational reformer, and founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools | MPC · 3002 |
3003 KonΔek | 1983 YH | MikulΓ‘Ε‘ KonΔek (1900β1982), Slovak meteorologist who founded of the Meteorological Institute in Bratislava | MPC · 3003 |
3004 Knud | 1976 DD | Knud Rasmussen (1879β1933), Greenlandic/Danish polar explorer and "anthropologist," who has been called the "father of Eskimology" | MPC · 3004 |
3005 Pervictoralex | 1979 QK2 | Per Victor Alexander Lagerkvist, son of Swedish discoverer Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist | MPC · 3005 |
3006 Livadia | 1979 SF11 | Livadiya, a suburb of Yalta on the coast of the Crimean Peninsula | MPC · 3006 |
3007 Reaves | 1979 UC | Gibson Reaves, American astronomer, historian and educator at the University of Southern California | MPC · 3007 |
3008 Nojiri | 1938 WA | HΕei Nojiri (1885β1977) Japanese essayist, author and astronomer | MPC · 3008 |
3009 Coventry | 1973 SM2 | Coventry, England, sister city of Volgograd | MPC · 3009 |
3010 Ushakov | 1978 SB5 | Fyodor Ushakov (1745β1817), Russian admiral | MPC · 3010 |
3011 Chongqing | 1978 WM14 | Chongqing, China | MPC · 3011 |
3012 Minsk | 1979 QU9 | Minsk, Byelorussian SSR | MPC · 3012 |
3013 Dobrovoleva | 1979 SD7 | Oleg Vasilyevich Dobrovolsky, Soviet astronomer known for his cometary studies. He was the head of the Cometary Astronomy Department of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Tadjik S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in Dushanbe. | MPC · 3013 |
3014 Huangsushu | 1979 TM | Su-Shu Huang (1915β1977), Chinese-American astrophysicist known for his studies on circumstellar habitable zones and prerequisites of extraterrestrial life | MPC · 3014 |
3015 Candy | 1980 VN | Michael P. Candy (1928β1994), British astrometrist and discoverer of minor planets and comets. Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and Perth Observatory. President of IAU Commission VI. | MPC · 3015 |
3016 Meuse | 1981 EK | The Meuse River (Dutch Maas), which rises in France and flows through Belgium and the Netherlands | MPC · 3016 |
3017 PetroviΔ | 1981 UL | Ε tefan PetroviΔ (1906β?), Slovak climatologist | MPC · 3017 |
3018 Godiva | 1982 KM | Lady Godiva (died ca. 1076), medieval Anglo-Saxon noblewoman and church patron, wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia | MPC · 3018 |
3019 Kulin | 1940 AC | GyΓΆrgy Kulin (1905β1989), Hungarian astronomer | MPC · 3019 |
3020 Naudts | 1949 PR | Ignace Naudts (1949β1992), Belgian amateur astronomer | MPC · 3020 |
3021 Lucubratio | 1967 CB | Latin for "nocturnal study, night work" (from lucubrum, candle) | MPC · 3021 |
3022 Dobermann | 1980 SH | Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann (1834β1894), German zoologist and amateur astronomer known for breeding the Dobermann | MPC · 3022 |
3023 Heard | 1981 JS | John Frederick Heard (1907β1976), Canadian astronomer, professor of astronomy at the University of Toronto and fourth director of the David Dunlap Observatory | MPC · 3023 |
3024 Hainan | 1981 UW9 | Hainan Province | MPC · 3024 |
3025 Higson | 1982 QR | Roger Higson, American night assistant for the 1.2-meter Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory in California. His supportive work has been appreciated by observers of comets and minor planets. | MPC · 3025 |
3026 Sarastro | 1977 TA1 | Sarastro, high priest of the Temple of Wisdom in Mozart's The Magic Flute | MPC · 3026 |
3027 Shavarsh | 1978 PQ2 | Shavarsh Karapetyan (born 1953), SovietβArmenian champion and world-record finswimmer, who saved 20 lives from drowning when a trolleybus fell into the Yerevan Lake. | MPC · 3027 |
3028 Zhangguoxi | 1978 TA2 | Zhang Guoxi, Chinese industrialist and philanthropist | MPC · 3028 |
3029 Sanders | 1981 EA8 | Jeffrey D. Sanders, American astronomer who participated in the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey as an undergraduate student | MPC · 3029 |
3030 Vehrenberg | 1981 EH16 | Hans Vehrenberg, German amateur astronomer from DΓΌsseldorf. He is the author of the Atlas of Deep-Sky Splendors (German: Mein Messier-Buch). For researchers on minor planets and comets, he published the "Falkauer Atlas" and "Atlas Stellarum". | MPC · 3030 |
3031 Houston | 1984 CX | Walter Scott Houston (1912β1993), American amateur astronomer well known for his column Deep Sky Wonders in Sky & Telescope | MPC · 3031 |
3032 Evans | 1984 CA1 | Reverend Robert O. Evans, Australian amateur astronomer, discoverer of several extragalactic supernovae | MPC · 3032 |
3033 Holbaek | 1984 EJ | HolbΓ¦k, Denmark, town nearest to the discovery site (Brorfelde Observatoriet) on the occasion of the former's 700th anniversary in 1986 | MPC · 3033 |
3034 Climenhaga | A917 SE | John L. Climenhaga (1916β2008), Canadian astronomer and father of journalist David Climenhaga (Src/Src) | MPC · 3034 |
3035 Chambers | A924 EJ | John Eric Chambers (born 1969), then British predoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics | MPC · 3035 |
3036 Krat | 1937 TO | Vladimir Krat (1911β1983), Russian astronomer | MPC · 3036 |
3037 Alku | 1944 BA | Finnish for "Beginning", the discoverer's boyhood boat, built by his father | MPC · 3037 |
3038 Bernes | 1978 QB3 | Mark Bernes (1911β1969), Soviet film actor and singer | MPC · 3038 |
3039 Yangel | 1978 SP2 | Mikhail Yangel (1911β1971), leading Soviet rocket and missile designer | MPC · 3039 |
3040 Kozai | 1979 BA | Yoshihide Kozai (1928β2018), Japanese astronomer and celestial mechanician, discoverer of the Kozai mechanism | MPC · 3040 |
3041 Webb | 1980 GD | Rev. Thomas William Webb (1807β1885), British astronomer, author of Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes and discoverer of S Orionis | MPC · 3041 |
3042 Zelinsky | 1981 EF10 | David S. Zelinsky, American mathematician at Brown University, formerly active participant in the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey while an undergraduate student at Caltech | MPC · 3042 |
3043 San Diego | 1982 SA | San Diego, California, in recognition of its efforts to curb light pollution | MPC · 3043 |
3044 Saltykov | 1983 RE3 | Nikita Saltykov (1893β1946), Russian farmer and grandfather of Natal'ja Vital'evna Metlova who co-discovered this minor planet | MPC · 3044 |
3045 Alois | 1984 AW | Alois T. Stuczynski, grandfather of American astronomer Joe Wagner who discovered this minor planet | MPC · 3045 |
3046 MoliΓ¨re | 4120 P-L | MoliΓ¨re (1622β1673), French playwright | MPC · 3046 |
3047 Goethe | 6091 P-L | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749β1832), German poet and playwright | MPC · 3047 |
3048 Guangzhou | 1964 TH1 | Guangzhou, Guangdong, China | MPC · 3048 |
3049 Kuzbass | 1968 FH | The coal mining Kuznets Basin, located in the Kemerovo Region of Siberia, one of the richest coal deposits in the world | MPC · 3049 |
3050 Carrera | 1972 NW | The four brothers of the Carrera family: Javiera (1781β1862), Juan JosΓ© (1782β1818), JosΓ© Miguel (1785β1821), and Luis (1791β1818), key figures of the Chilean War of Independence | MPC · 3050 |
3051 Nantong | 1974 YP | Nantong, Jiangsu, China | MPC · 3051 |
3052 Herzen | 1976 YJ3 | Alexander Herzen (1812β1870), Russian revolutionary, writer, and philosopher, "father of Russian socialism" and founder of the free Russian press abroad | MPC · 3052 |
3053 Dresden | 1977 QS | The German city of Dresden | MPC · 3053 |
3054 Strugatskia | 1977 RE7 | The brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (1925β1991, 1933β2012) Russian science fiction writers | MPC · 3054 |
3055 Annapavlova | 1978 TR3 | Anna Pavlova (1881β1931), Russian prima ballerina best known for her performance of The Dying Swan | MPC · 3055 |
3056 INAG | 1978 VD1 | The French National Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (French: Institut national d'astronomie et de gΓ©ophysique; INAG), which built the discovery telescope | MPC · 3056 |
3057 MΓ€laren | 1981 EG | Lake MΓ€laren, Sweden | MPC · 3057 |
3058 Delmary | 1981 EO17 | Delmary Rose Schanz (born 1938), American artist | MPC · 3058 |
3059 Pryor | 1981 EF23 | Carlton P. Pryor, American astronomer who participated in the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey while an undergraduate student at Caltech | MPC · 3059 |
3060 Delcano | 1982 RD1 | Juan SebastiΓ‘n Elcano/del CaΓ±o (1476β1526), Spanish navigator, lieutenant of Magellan, first to continuously circumnavigate the globe | MPC · 3060 |
3061 Cook | 1982 UB1 | James Cook (1728β1779), British explorer and navigator | MPC · 3061 |
3062 Wren | 1982 XC | Sir Christopher Wren (1632β1723), British architect and astronomer | MPC · 3062 |
3063 Makhaon | 1983 PV | Makhaon, mythical physician to Greeks during the Trojan War | MPC · 3063 |
3064 Zimmer | 1984 BB1 | Louis Zimmer (1888β1970), Belgian amateur astronomer and clockmaker to the King of Belgium | MPC · 3064 |
3065 Sarahill | 1984 CV | Sarah J. Hill, professor of astronomy and chairman of the astronomy department at Wellesley College | MPC · 3065 |
3066 McFadden | 1984 EO | Lucy-Ann McFadden (born 1953), American astronomer and planetary scientist | MPC · 3066 |
3067 Akhmatova | 1982 TE2 | Anna Akhmatova (1889β1966), Soviet poet | MPC · 3067 |
3068 Khanina | 1982 YJ1 | Frida Borisovna Khanina, Soviet orbit computer and long-time member of the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy | MPC · 3068 |
3069 HeyrovskΓ½ | 1982 UG2 | Jaroslav HeyrovskΓ½ (1890β1967), Czech physical chemist | MPC · 3069 |
3070 Aitken | 1949 GK | Robert Grant Aitken (1864β1951), American astronomer, fourth director of the Lick Observatory, and author of the "New General Catalogue of Double Stars within 12Β° of the North Pole" (1932) | MPC · 3070 |
3071 Nesterov | 1973 FT1 | Pyotr Nesterov (1887β1914), Russian pioneer airman | MPC · 3071 |
3072 Vilnius | 1978 RS1 | Vilnius, Lithuania | MPC · 3072 |
3073 Kursk | 1979 SW11 | Kursk, Russia | MPC · 3073 |
3074 Popov | 1979 YE9 | Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859β1906), Russian radio inventor | MPC · 3074 |
3075 Bornmann | 1981 EY15 | Patricia L. Bornmann, American solar astronomer who participated in the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey while an undergraduate student at Caltech | MPC · 3075 |
3076 Garber | 1982 RB1 | Paul E. Garber (1899β1992), American historian and first head of the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C | MPC · 3076 |
3077 Henderson | 1982 SK | Thomas Henderson (1798β1844), Scottish astronomer, mathematician, and first Astronomer Royal for Scotland. In 1839 he was the first person to measure the distance Alpha Centauri | MPC · 3077 |
3078 Horrocks | 1984 FG | Jeremiah Horrocks (1619β1641), also known as Jeremiah Horrox, English astronomer and mathematician who predicted and was the first to observe the transit of Venus in 1639. He also demonstrated that the Moon moved around the Earth in an elliptical orbit. | MPC · 3078 |
3079 Schiller | 2578 P-L | Friedrich Schiller (1759β1805), German playwright | MPC · 3079 |
3080 Moisseiev | 1935 TE | Nikolay Moiseyev (1902β1955), Soviet astronomer and an expert in celestial mechanics | MPC · 3080 |
3081 MartinΕ―boh | 1971 UP | Bohuslav MartinΕ― (1890β1959), Czech composer of modern classical music | MPC · 3081 |
3082 Dzhalil | 1972 KE | Musa CΓ€lil (Musa Mustafovich Dzhalil'; 1906β1944), Tatar Soviet poet and resistance fighter | MPC · 3082 |
3083 OAFA | 1974 MH | FΓ©lix Aguilar Observatory in Argentina | MPC · 3083 |
3084 Kondratyuk | 1977 QB1 | Yuri Kondratyuk (1897β1942), Soviet engineer, mathematician and pioneer of astronautics and spaceflight | MPC · 3084 |
3085 Donna | 1980 DA | Donna Marie Thompson, American administrative assistant for the Minor Planet Center and the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, secretary for the Planetary Sciences division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics | MPC · 3085 |
3086 Kalbaugh | 1980 XE | Carroll Kalbaugh Liller, father of Chilean astronomer William Liller | MPC · 3086 |
3087 Beatrice Tinsley | 1981 QJ1 | Beatrice Tinsley (1941β1981), British-born New Zealand astronomer and cosmologist | MPC · 3087 |
3088 Jinxiuzhonghua | 1981 UX9 | "Splendid China", park at Shenzhen, the largest miniature scenic spot in the world | MPC · 3088 |
3089 Oujianquan | 1981 XK2 | Ou Jianquan, Chinese entrepreneur, for his notable contributions developing township enterprises | MPC · 3089 |
3090 Tjossem | 1982 AN | The Tjossem family of central Washington State, four generations of whose members have been friends of the discoverer and his family (in particular Peter Tjossem, 19thβ20th-century amateur entomologist and paleobotanist) | MPC · 3090 |
3091 van den Heuvel | 6081 P-L | Ed van den Heuvel (born 1940), Dutch astronomer, and his niece Julia Edith van den Heuvel | MPC · 3091 |
3092 Herodotus | 6550 P-L | Herodotus (c. 484 BC β c. 425 BC), Greek historian, "Father of Historiography" | MPC · 3092 |
3093 Bergholz | 1971 MG | Olga Bergholz (1910β1975), Soviet poet | MPC · 3093 |
3094 Chukokkala | 1979 FE2 | Korney Chukovsky (1882β1969), pen name of Nikolaj Kornejchukov, one of the most popular children's poets in the Russian language | MPC · 3094 |
3095 Omarkhayyam | 1980 RT2 | Omar Khayyam (1048β1131), Persian astronomer, mathematician and philosopher | MPC · 3095 |
3096 BezruΔ | 1981 QC1 | Petr BezruΔ (1867β1958), Czech poet | MPC · 3096 |
3097 Tacitus | 2011 P-L | Tacitus (c. 56β120), Roman historian | MPC · 3097 |
3098 van Sprang | 4579 P-L | Bert van Sprang (1944β2015), Dutch meteor specialist | MPC · 3098 |
3099 Hergenrother | 1940 GF | Carl W. Hergenrother (born 1973), American astronomer and discoverer of minor planets | MPC · 3099 |
3100 Zimmerman | 1977 EQ1 | Nikolaj Vladimirovich Zimmerman (1890β1942), Russian astronomer at Pulkovo Observatory and professor at Leningrad University, known for his astrometric observations and his compilations of star catalogs | MPC · 3100 |
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- ^ "WGSBN Bulletin Archive". Working Group Small Body Nomenclature. 14 May 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
- ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ^ "JPL β Solar System Dynamics: Discovery Circumstances". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
- ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2006). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names β Addendum to Fifth Edition: 2003β2005. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. ISBN 978-3-540-34360-8. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ^ Herget, Paul (1968). The Names of the Minor Planets. Cincinnati, Ohio: Minor Planet Center, Cincinnati Observatory. OCLC 224288991.
- ^ "Guide to Minor Body Astrometry β When can I name my discovery?". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
- ^ "Minor Planet Naming Guidelines (Rules and Guidelines for naming non-cometary small Solar-System bodies) β v1.0" (PDF). Working Group Small Body Nomenclature (PDF). 20 December 2021.
Preceded by | Meanings of minor planet names List of minor planets: 3,001β4,000 |
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