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List of minor planets

The following is a list of numbered minor planets in ascending numerical order. With the exception of comets, minor planets are all small bodies in the Solar System, including asteroids, distant objects and dwarf planets. The catalog consists of hundreds of pages, each containing 1,000 minor planets. Every year, the Minor Planet Center, which operates on behalf of the International Astronomical Union, publishes thousands of newly numbered minor planets in its Minor Planet Circulars (see index).[1][2] As of June 2024, there are 699,991 numbered minor planets (secured discoveries) out of a total of 1,367,486 observed small Solar System bodies, with the remainder being unnumbered minor planets and comets.[3]

The catalog's first object is 1 Ceres, discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801, while its best-known entry is Pluto, listed as 134340 Pluto. The vast majority (97.3%) of minor planets are asteroids from the asteroid belt (the catalog uses a color code to indicate a body's dynamical classification). There are more than a thousand different minor-planet discoverers observing from a growing list of registered observatories. In terms of numbers, the most prolific discoverers are Spacewatch, LINEAR, MLS, NEAT and CSS. There are also 23,542 named minor planets mostly after people, places and figures from mythology and fiction,[4] which account for only 3.8% of all numbered catalog entries. (4596) 1981 QB and 677772 Bettonvil are currently the lowest-numbered unnamed and highest-numbered named minor planets, respectively.[1][4]


It is expected that the upcoming survey by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will discover another 5 million minor planets during the next ten years—almost a tenfold increase from current numbers.[5] While all main-belt asteroids with a diameter above 10 km (6.2 mi) have already been discovered, there might be as many as 10 trillion 1 m (3.3 ft)-sized asteroids or larger out to the orbit of Jupiter; and more than a trillion minor planets in the Kuiper belt.[5][6] For minor planets grouped by a particular aspect or property, see § Specific lists.

main-belt asteroids show their based on the synthetic hierarchical clustering method by Nesvorný (2014),[12][a]

family membership

asteroids are displayed by their numerical ratio and include the Hildas (3:2), Cybeles (7:4), Thules (4:3) and Griquas (2:1), while the Jupiter trojans (1:1) display whether they belong to the Greek (L4) or Trojan camp (L5),[13]

resonant

(H), are labelled in italics (H), when they are not members of the collisional family[14]

Hungaria asteroids

near-Earth objects are divided into the (ATE), Amor (AMO), Apollo (APO), and Atira (ATI) group,[b] with some of them being potentially hazardous asteroids (PHA),[15] and/or larger than one kilometer in diameter (+1km) as determined by the MPC.[14]

Aten

trans-Neptunian objects are divided into dynamical subgroups including (hot or cold), scattered disc objects, plutinos and other Neptunian resonances,[16]

cubewanos

-like and/or retrograde objects with a TJupiter value below 2 are tagged with damocloid,

comet

based on MPC's and Johnston's lists are labelled unusual,[17]

other unusual objects

and trinary minor planets with companions are tagged with "moon" and link to their corresponding entry in minor-planet moon,[18]

binary

objects with an exceptionally long or short are tagged with "slow" (period of 100+ hours) or "fast" (period of less than 2.2 hours) and link to their corresponding entry in List of slow rotators and List of fast rotators, respectively.[19]

rotation period

minor planets which also received a periodic-comet number (such as ) link to the List of numbered comets

95P/Chiron for 2060 Chiron

List of exceptional asteroids

List of slow rotators (minor planets)

List of instrument-resolved minor planets

List of Jupiter trojans (Greek camp)

List of Jupiter trojans (Trojan camp)

List of minor planets visited by spacecraft

List of minor planet moons

List of minor-planet groups

List of named minor planets (alphabetical)

List of named minor planets (numerical)

List of possible dwarf planets

List of centaurs (small Solar System bodies)

List of trans-Neptunian objects

List of unnumbered minor planets

List of unnumbered trans-Neptunian objects

Meanings of minor planet names

List of minor planets named after people

The following are lists of minor planets by physical properties, orbital properties, or discovery circumstances:

Lists of astronomical objects

Binary asteroid

 – top ten most likely: Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Sedna, Ceres, Orcus, Salacia

Dwarf planets

(A major ring of bodies in the Solar System, around 30-60 AU and home to Pluto)

Kuiper belt

Minor-planet moon

Trans-Neptunian object

Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, 5th ed.: Prepared on Behalf of Commission 20 Under the Auspices of the International Astronomical Union, , ISBN 3-540-00238-3

Lutz D. Schmadel

, Paul Herget, 1968, OCLC 224288991

The Names of the Minor Planets

Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Small-Body Database

How Many Solar System Bodies

SBN Small Bodies Data Archive

(of any Small Solar System Body or dwarf planet)

JPL Minor Planet Database for physical and orbital data

on YouTube (min. 3:13)

Scott Manley's timelapse animation of Asteroid Discovery 1980–2012