The basic problems of the Laboratory are connected with researches of dynamics of minor planets and comets.

The one of main problems of the Laboratory is the preparation and publication of the annual “EFEMERIDY MALYKH PLANET”(“EPHEMERIDES OF MINOR PLANETS”) and its computer version, known as software package AMPLE. Starting from 2001 the Laboratory also prepares files “UPDATED EPHEMERIDIES OF MINOR PLANETS” (UEMP) that contain more up-to-date information on numbered minor planets than appears in the annualy published volume Efemeridy Malykh Planet. UEMP files are available electronically from the IAA ftp server.

The other challenge facing the Laboratory is the development of new software for solving ephemeris problems associated with minor planet study and its maintenance.

The Laboratory also deals with some other problems in one way or another pertained to minor planets. Among these are

1. THE ORBIT IMPROVEMENT of minor planets from optical and radar observations,

2. the utilization of minor planet observations for THE DETERMINATION OF ORIENTATION OF STAR CATALOGUES and DETERMINATION OF MASSES OF MINOR PLANETS BY DYNAMICAL METHOD,

3. THE ESTIMATION OF COLLISION PROBABILITY of minor planets with other bodies and with each other,

4. the investigation of prograde-rotational motion of components IN BINARY SYSTEMS and associated light curves.

The main problems with which the laboratory deals with in the field of COMET dynamics are as follows:

1. EVOLUTION OF COMETS ORBITS under the influence of gravitational perturbations and non-gravitational forces. Calculation of the orbits and ephemerides of comets, in particular those which have closes approaches with the Earth.

2. DYNAMICS OF DUST MATTER in a cometary head. Influence of dust and gas distribution in comet atmospheres on the results of astrometric and photometric observations. DYNAMICS OF METEORIC FLOWS and their interrelationship with comets.

3. Preparation of the NEW EDITION of the CATALOGUE OF SHORT-PERIODIC COMETS (in collaboration with Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences).

4. Use of observations of different types, including radar ones, for improovment of orbit parameters. Development of new software, for greater accuracy of orbit computations and enlargement of amount of information obtained from observations.

The Laboratory participates in joint work on OBSERVATIONS OF NEAR EARTH OBJECTS and selected minor planets in conformity with agreements concluded between IAA and Crimean Astrophysical observatory (Ukraine), Nikolaev observatory (Ukraine) and Astronomical Observatory of Kharkov University (Ukraine). The Laboratory supplies observers with ephemerides, distributes urgent information on fast moving objects, determines and improves orbits of new discovered objects. The information about fast moving objects is distributed also among all interested observatories of CIS.

Laboratory also participates in SUGGESTING NEW NAMES and corresponding citations for MINOR PLANETS. For the purpose of solving these problems a number of catalogues and data bases are maintained. Among these are THE CATALOGUE OF MINOR PLANET OBSERVATIONS (corresponds to catalogue of MINOR PLANET CENTER (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA), the catalogue of MINOR PLANET NAMES, the catalogue of ELEMENTS of numbered and unnumbered minor planets, the catalogue of NEA's, the data base DOZOR containing the information on the minor planets discovered by domestic astronomers or named in honor of events of home history, toponyms, citizens of Russia and the former USSR.

The Laboratory also maintains a data base on information relevant to minor planets and comets that was published in Circulars of Minor Planet Center and that of IAU.