Present section contains two
Tables: the first one lists the names of all minor planets in alphabetic order
as of the last updating of the Table.
The second Table lists the numbered minor
planets
in order of their numbers. For each minor planet the Table, apart from number
represents also the name of minor planet, if any, and its principal
preliminary
designation.
The first Table is subdivided into the parts
according to the first letter of name. When spelling some names the diacritics
are used. They are displayed with the help of special symbol codes of HTML.
As sometimes such symbols can not be read by some browser, provision is made
to see correct spelling of names in TeX format (on clicking such names).
The second Table is subdivided into the parts
each containing one thousand minor planets. Here also the same possibility is
foreseen to see spelling in TeX format as in the first Table.
Bellow the rules for assigning preliminary
designations to minor planets are shortly described.
The Minor Planet
Center
(Cambridge, USA) assigns preliminary designation to an object having the
observations at least in two nights that can not be immediately identified
with some already numbered or designated object. Such designations consist of
a year followed by two letters and optional one, two, or three digits.
The first letter corresponds to the half-month period within indicated year,
when the object was firstly observed (discovered). The following Table lists
the letters one-to-one with half-month periods:
| A | Jan. 1–15 |
| B | Jan. 16–31 |
| C | Feb. 1–15 |
| D | Feb. 16–29 |
| E | Mar. 1–15 |
| F | Mar. 16–31 |
|
| G | Apr. 1–15 |
| H | Apr. 16–30 |
| J | May 1–15 |
| K | May 16–31 |
| L | June 1–15 |
| M | June 16–30 |
|
| N | July 1–15 |
| O | July 16–31 |
| P | Aug. 1–15 |
| Q | Aug. 16–31 |
| R | Sep. 1–15 |
| S | Sep. 16–30 |
|
| T | Oct. 1–15 |
| U | Oct. 16–31 |
| V | Nov. 1–15 |
| W | Nov. 16–30 |
| X | Dec. 1–15 |
| Y | Dec. 16–31 |
|
I is omitted and Z is unused. The
second letter
in designation corresponds to the order of the designation within half-month
(letters from
A to Z with I omitted). In case there are
more than 25 designations within half-month the second letter is
recycled and numeral '1' is
added to the designation (e.g. 1995 SA1, 1995 SB1, ..., 1995 SA2, ...).
If more than 250 discoveries take place within one
half-month, the second letter is followed by two digits (e.g. 1995 SA10,
1995 SB10, etc). It can happen that last letter is followed by three digits.
For example, 2000 WR106 is the designation of an
object discovered on 28 November, 2000 and
it is 2667th object in the second half-month of November.
Apart these preliminary designations special
ones are used
for minor planets discovered in the course of special surveys, undertaken
between 1960 and 1977. Such designations consist of a number (identifying the
order within that survey), a space and a survey identifier. The survey
identifiers are as follows:
| Survey | Identifier |
| Palomar-Leiden (1960) | P-L |
| First Trojan Survey (1971) | T-1 |
| Second Trojan Survey (1973) | T-2 |
| Third Trojan Survey (1977) | T-3 |
Examples of designations are 2040 P-L, 3138 T-1,
1010 T-2 and 4101 T-3.
It is important to stress that preliminary
designation gives an idea of date of minor planet discovery.