Minor planet designation
Sign in to saveAlso known as provisional designation of asteroids
number-name combination assigned to minor planets
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- naming convention
- Subclass of
- astronomical naming convention
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Encyclopedic overview
There are three internationally standardized designations for minor planets, which are assigned by the Minor Planet Center (MPC). In order of assignment, these are:
An initial provisional designation, for all announced discoveries, that reflects the date of discovery;
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Minor planet designation” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.