Distant minor planet in the context of "Minor Planet Center"

According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term minor planet, but that year's meeting reclassified minor planets and comets into dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies (SSSBs). In contrast to the eight official planets of the Solar System, all minor planets fail to clear their orbital neighborhood.

Minor planets include asteroids (near-Earth objects, Earth trojans, Mars trojans, Mars-crossers, main-belt asteroids and Jupiter trojans), as well as distant minor planets (Uranus trojans, Neptune trojans, centaurs and trans-Neptunian objects), most of which reside in the Kuiper belt and the scattered disc. As of October 2025, there are 1,472,966 known objects, divided into 875,150 numbered, with only one of them recognized as a dwarf planet (secured discoveries) and 597,816 unnumbered minor planets, with only five of those officially recognized as a dwarf planet.

Retrograde motion in astronomy is, in general, orbital or rotational motion of an object in the direction opposite the rotation of its primary, that is, the central object (right figure). It may also describe other motions such as precession or nutation of an object's rotational axis. Prograde or direct motion is more normal motion in the same direction as the primary rotates. However, "retrograde" and "prograde" can also refer to an object other than the primary if so described. The direction of rotation is determined by an inertial frame of reference, such as distant fixed stars.

In the Solar System, the orbits around the Sun of all planets and dwarf planets and most small Solar System bodies, except many comets and few distant objects, are prograde. They orbit around the Sun in the same direction as the sun rotates about its axis, which is counterclockwise when observed from above the Sun's north pole. Except for Venus and Uranus, planetary rotations around their axis are also prograde. Most natural satellites have prograde orbits around their planets. Prograde satellites of Uranus orbit in the direction Uranus rotates, which is retrograde to the Sun. Nearly all regular satellites are tidally locked and thus have prograde rotation. Retrograde satellites are generally small and distant from their planets, except Neptune's satellite Triton, which is large and close. All retrograde satellites are thought to have formed separately before being captured by their planets.

The following is a list of minor planets in ascending numerical order. Minor planets are small bodies in the Solar System: asteroids, distant objects, and dwarf planets, but not comets. As of 2022, the vast majority (97.3%) are asteroids from the asteroid belt. Their discoveries are certified by the Minor Planet Center, which assigns them numbers on behalf of the International Astronomical Union. Every year, the Center publishes thousands of newly numbered minor planets in its Minor Planet Circulars (see index). As of October 2025, the 875,150 numbered minor planets made up more than half of the 1,474,903 observed small Solar System bodies, of which the rest were unnumbered minor planets and comets.

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. Both are among the 3.1% of numbered minor planets with names, mostly of people, places, and figures from mythology and fiction. (4596) 1981 QB and 841529 Jonahwoodhams are currently the lowest-numbered unnamed and highest-numbered named minor planets, respectively.

The following is a list of unnumbered minor planets in chronological order of their principal provisional designation. Contrary to their numbered counterparts, unnumbered minor planets have a poorly determined orbit due to insufficient observational data. This also includes lost minor planets which have not been observed for many years, or even decades. As of August 2023, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) accounts for 676,755 unnumbered minor planets which represent 52% of the overall minor planet population. Unnumbered minor planets can be further divided into 129,103 single-opposition objects with short observation arcs, prone to mismatch and loss, and 547,652 objects that have been observed multiple times during opposition, when astrometric conditions are most favorable. The JPL Small-Body Database gives a running total of 676,786 unnumbered minor planets.

The tables below contain 115 objects with a principal designation assigned between 1927 and 1994. Additional partial lists cover the period from 1995 to 2004. Unnumbered minor planets detected after 2004 are not listed due to their large number. The orbital uncertainty parameter (U) ranges from low ("0") to very high ("9"). For some single-opposition objects no numeric uncertainty is given ("–"), with "E" indicating an estimated, rather than determined orbital eccentricity. Furthermore, a color code is used to indicate a body's basic dynamical classification, with additional information given in columns "class" and "description and notes" (especially for near-Earth objects, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). If available, mean diameters are taken from the latest NEOWISE publication, or, if not available, estimated based on an object's absolute magnitude and displayed in italics.

This is a list of notable minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). As of 22 October 2025, the discovery of over 800,000 numbered minor planets are credited to 2,186 astronomers, observatories, telescopes or surveys.