List of minor planets in the context of "Minor-planet designation"

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⭐ Core Definition: List of minor 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.

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👉 List of minor planets in the context of Minor-planet designation

A formal minor-planet designation is, in its final form, a number–name combination given to a minor planet (asteroid, centaur, trans-Neptunian object and dwarf planet but not comet). Such designation always features a leading number (catalog or IAU number) assigned to a body once its orbital path is sufficiently secured (so-called "numbering"). The formal designation is based on the minor planet's provisional designation, which was previously assigned automatically when it had been observed for the first time. Later on, the provisional part of the formal designation may be replaced with a name (so-called "naming"). Both formal and provisional designations are overseen by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), a branch of the International Astronomical Union.

Currently, a number is assigned only after the orbit has been secured by four well-observed oppositions. For unusual objects, such as near-Earth asteroids, numbering might already occur after three, maybe even only two, oppositions. Among more than half a million minor planets that received a number, only about 20 thousand (or 4%) have received a name. In addition, approximately 700,000 minor planets have not been numbered, as of November 2023.

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List of minor planets in the context of Minor planet

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.

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List of minor planets in the context of 14339 Knorre

The following is a partial list of minor planets, running from minor-planet number 14001 through 15000, inclusive. The primary data for this and other partial lists is based on JPL's "Small-Body Orbital Elements" and data available from the Minor Planet Center. Critical list information is also provided by the MPC, unless otherwise specified from Lowell Observatory. A detailed description of the table's columns and additional sources are given on the main page including a complete list of every page in this series, and a statistical break-up on the dynamical classification of minor planets.

Also see the summary list of all named bodies in numerical and alphabetical order, and the corresponding naming citations for the number range of this particular list. New namings may only be added to this list after official publication, as the preannouncement of names is condemned by the Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union.

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List of minor planets in the context of Trans-Neptunian object

A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has an orbital semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (AU).

Typically, TNOs are further divided into the classical and resonant objects of the Kuiper belt, the scattered disc and detached objects with the sednoids being the most distant ones. As of February 2025, the catalog of minor planets contains 1006 numbered and more than 4000 unnumbered TNOs. However, nearly 5900 objects with semimajor axis over 30 AU are present in the MPC catalog, with 1009 being numbered.

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List of minor planets in the context of List of unnumbered minor planets

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.

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List of minor planets in the context of List of minor planet discoverers

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.

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List of minor planets in the context of List of largest asteroids

The following is a collection of lists of asteroids of the Solar System that are exceptional in some way, such as their size or orbit. For the purposes of this article, "asteroid" refers to minor planets out to the orbit of Neptune, and includes the dwarf planet Ceres, the Jupiter trojans and the centaurs, but not trans-Neptunian objects (objects in the Kuiper belt, scattered disc or inner Oort cloud). For a complete list of minor planets in numerical order, see List of minor planets.

Asteroids are given minor planet numbers, but not all minor planets are asteroids. Minor planet numbers are also given to objects of the Kuiper belt, which is similar to the asteroid belt but farther out (around 30–60 AU). Asteroids are mostly between 2–3 AU from the Sun or at the orbit of Jupiter, 5 AU from the Sun. Comets are not typically included under minor planet numbers, and have their own naming conventions.

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