As minor planet discoveries are confirmed, they are given a permanent number by the IAU's Minor Planet Center (MPC), and the discoverers can then submit names for them, following the IAU's naming conventions. The list below concerns those minor planets in the specified number-range that have received names, and explains the meanings of those names.
Based on Paul Herget's The Names of the Minor Planets,[6] Schmadel also researched the unclear origin of numerous asteroids, most of which had been named prior to World War II. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: SBDB New namings may only be added to this list below after official publication as the preannouncement of names is condemned.[7] The WGSBN publishes a comprehensive guideline for the naming rules of non-cometary small Solar System bodies.[8]
Thomas Henry Markert (1948–1996), an American astronomer who made some of the first x-ray observations of binary star systems, supernova remnants, suspected black holes and local group galaxies. He helped develop much of the instrumentation used on major x-ray observatories, including Einstein's FPCS and Chandra's HETG spectrometers.
Joseph T. Williams (born 1936), American engineer at the Multiple-Mirror Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona ("J. T." also appears in the provisional designation)
Miamar Gloria Burgos-Rosario (b. 2002) was awarded first place in the 2019 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for her microbiology team project. She attended the Hayfield Secondary School, Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.A.
Olga Rozanova (1886–1918), a Russian painter, illustrator and designer, who was a member of the avant-garde group Supremus, led by Cubo-Futurist Kazimir Malevich.
Stephen Slivan (born 1962), American astronomer who demonstrated a preferential spin-vector alignment among Koronis family members. Known as "Slivan states", the discovery has led to a new understanding of thermal radiation forces on small bodies.
Katherine St. George (b. 2002) was a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors, for her animal sciences project. She attended the John F. Kennedy High School, Bellmore, New York.
Richard Nolthenius (born 1952) is a Californian astronomer with publications on subjects as diverse as dark matter, galaxies, black holes, asteroids and climate change. A well-known teacher, he developed and runs Cabrillo College's observatory and astronomy program, and is a prolific observer of occultations in his spare time.
Milton Caniff (1907–1988), American cartoonist who created the comic strips Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. His attention to detail gained him the title "the Rembrandt of Comics". The name was suggested by F. N. Bowman, who found the identification involving this minor planet.
Aesacus, Trojan prince in Greek mythology who was the son of Priam and Arisbe. Aisakos was a seer – as had also been his maternal grandfather, Merops – and said that Hecuba's future son would bring disaster to Troy.
Pheidippos was a hero from Nisyros, in the Kalydnian islands. Son of king Thessalos, brother of Antiphos and grandson of Heracles, he fought against Telephos, king of Mysia
Thymbraeus was one of the two sons of Laocoön who was killed by sea serpents sent to punish the father for attempting to warn the Trojans about the danger of the wooden horse left by the Greeks. The scene is immortalized in an ancient sculpture, the Gruppo del Laocoonte on display in the Vatican.
Andrew G. Santo (born 1961), an American spacecraft engineer at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. His diligent work as Spacecraft System Engineer throughout the development, launch and operations phases ensured the success of NEAR Shoemaker, NASA's initial "faster, better, cheaper" Discovery mission.
Karel Teige (1900–1952) was a graphic artist, leader and theoretician of the Czech art avantgarde. He served as a main Czech connection to French Surrealism, especially to Andre Breton. He was a co-founder of The Group of Surrealists in Czechoslovakia in 1934
Jim V. McAdams (born 1961) optimizes spacecraft trajectories at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. He designed trajectories for the NEAR Shoemaker mission from the formative phase of NASA's Discovery Program in 1989 to landing on (433) Eros in 2001.
Reinhold Kroll, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, is known for his research on magnetic, chemically peculiar stars, particularly infrared observations of them. He was a fellow student of the discoverer at the University of Göttingen.
Jean de Sainte-Colombe (1640–1700), a French composer and celebrated viola da gamba player, added a seventh string on the bass viol. A teacher of Marin Marais, he wrote more than 60 concertos for two viols and more than 170 pieces for the seven-string viol
Salvatore Quasimodo (1901–1968), an Italian novelist and poet, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1959. One of the foremost poets of the 20th century, he devoted himself to the translation of the Gospel of John, some of Catullus' cantos and several episodes from the Odyssey.
The name Mopaku honors three assistants involved with the observations of minor planets at Kavular: Venkatachala Moorthy, Arvind Paranjpye and Kamatchiappan Kuppuswamy
The Amour river in Russia flows across northern Asia from the mountains of northeastern China to the Sea of Okhotsk. With a length of 4444 km, the Amurreka drains diverse landscapes of desert, steppe, tundra and taiga. The river forms the border between the Russian Far East and northeastern China
Innkeeper Andreas Hofer (1767–1810) headed the Tyrolese popular rising against French occupation and was executed by a firing squad on order of Napoleon. His patriotic and heroic engagement is the subject of numerous dramatic plays, stories and poems, notably by Rosegger, Eichendorff and Koerner.
Shigosenger is a team of original characters introduced by Akashi Municipal Planetarium to promote astronomy education for children. The Planetarium is situated on the Japan Standard Time Meridian and "Shigosen" is a Japanese term for the meridian.
Takahisa Morita (born 1933) is a Japanese amateur astronomer who regularly opens his personal telescope to the public. He is particularly skilled at sunspot and prominence photography, and his images often grace the pages of Japanese astronomical magazines
Inawashiroko, one of the largest lakes in Japan, is located in Bandai-Asahi National Park. It is known for the clarity of its water, migrating swans and numerous swimming beaches. The town of Inawashiro on the north shore is the birthplace of bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi
Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) founded modern Swiss painting with his use of allegorical themes, historical events, sights of the Alps, lakes and portraits. His monumental 1907–1908 mural Marching out of the Jenense students in the war of liberation in 1813 adorns the aula of Jena University.
Antaviana is a word created by the writer Pere Calders. It was suggested by students in honor of their school Antaviana, located at Barcelona, Spain, as a symbol of solidarity, responsibility, freedom and hope
Since retiring as principal of a junior high school "child astronomy club" sponsored by Kuroishi city, Tetsuro Fukushi (born 1936) has worked as a volunteer lecturer. Since 1998 he has worked to further the spread of astronomical activities for local citizens as vice president of the Kuroishi Subaru Association
Seiji Manabe (born 1947) was a project manager of the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astronomy, which led to the high-precision determination of trigonometric parallaxes for Galactic radio sources. He served as head of the Earth Rotation Division at the National Observatory of Japan and as director of Mizusawa Observatory
Celeste Ann Child, daughter of Jack and Maren Child, in recognition of her achievements in school, friendships and family, and her commitment to tolerance and compassion.
Yukihito Koga (born 1959), the executive announcer at the broadcasting station in Fukuoka, is also very well known as an amateur astronomer and as an astronomical anchorperson in Kyushu. His main interests are comets, meteors, solar eclipses and deep-space observations
Yoshio Hisayuki (born 1942) founded the Ube astronomy club in Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan in 1968. He was the president of the club during 1968–1974 and again from 2006 to the present. Since 2006, he has served also as the director of the Ube Municipal Planetarium.
Neste Bovelli (1913–2015) was a professor of humanities, and passionate about literature, art and history. She was an active president of various cultural associations, and promoted and published many issues about art and the history of the city of Terni.
Kenneth Kennedy (born 1942) has been an active amateur astronomer in Scotland for fifty years. A retired senior hematologist, he has been Director of the BAA Aurora Section and has encouraged amateur collaboration in professional studies of aurora and polar mesospheric clouds
Tsuneyoshi Fujii, Japanese director of the Sunshine Planetarium in Tokyo, and earlier lecturer and curator at the Gotoh Planetarium and Astronomical Museum, also in Tokyo
Lev Kopelev (Лев Копелев, German spelling Lew Kopelew), Russian author and dissident, recipient of the Peace Prize of the Association of the German Book Trade
Sheldon Schafer, professor of astronomy at Bradley University, and director emeritus of the Lakeside Planetarium in Peoria, Illinois. He built the world's largest scale model of the Solar System.
Qoyllurwasi means "house of stars" in the Incan language, Quechua. The name was chosen to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the "Mutsumi Ishitsuka" National Planetarium of the Geophysical Institute of Peru.
Wu Mengchao (1922–2021), academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was an expert and pioneer on hepatosurgery. He established a unique system of liver surgery of China and led the development of hepatosurgery internationally. He won the China State Supreme Science and Technology Award in 2005
Ikuo Takimoto (born 1954) became interested in astronomy after seeing a photograph of Comet Ikeya-Seki. He now photographs sunspots and solar prominences, in both white light and H-®, at the private observatory he completed in 1988.
Humpty-Dumpty, character in a Mother Goose rhyme, whose head and body together are egg-shaped. He is not only the subject of one of the most famous nursery rhymes in English but also a major character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He tells Alice a lot about the meaning of words, including the strange ones in the poem "Jabberwocky".
Wilhelm Blaschke (1885–1962) was an Austro-Hungarian mathematician and instrumental in establishing the University of Hamburg as an important center of mathematical research. His own research centered on differential and integral geometry and kinematics, and he laid the foundations of topological differential geometry.
The Inarimori ancient burial mound is located in the south of Nanyo city, Yamagata prefecture. It has a square front and a circular main part, constructed in the latter part of the fourth century. It was the tomb of a chief in the ancient Okitama province (southern part of Yamagata prefecture)
The minor-planet explorer, Hayabusa (MUSES-C) was developed by JAXA/ISAS and launched in 2003. It traveled to (25143) Itokawa to capture samples of surface material. After overcoming many critical difficulties, Hayabusa finally returned to the earth in 2010, with fragments of surface material.
Himawari, which means "sunflower", is the name of a series of Japanese weather satellites. Himawari-1 was launched in 1977, and the latest, Himawari-7, was launched in 2006
Tweedledum, character in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. When Alice meets him, he is standing under a tree with his arm round his brother's neck. Like his twin Tweedledee, he gives his name to a minor planet of Hungaria type.
Rafael Bombelli (1526–1572), Italian mathematician of Bologna, known for his treatise on algebra introduced a consistent procedure for handling imaginary complex numbers, removing some of the mystery from the so-called irreducible case of the solution of the cubic equation.
Oleksiy Golubov (born 1985) has changed our understanding of the YORP effect via his theory of Tangential YORP, which helps explain the measured spin evolution of asteroids. His current work has identified several new equilibrium states for binaries, leading to important new predictions for how these bodies dynamically evolve.
Zhifei Yu (b. 2002), a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors, for her space science project. She attended the Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.
Renato Dulbecco (1914–2012) was an Italian-American virologist who won the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning the interaction between tumor viruses and the genetic material of the cell.
Paul Bailey mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the BASIS Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Scott Brunner mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the University Liggett School, Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan.
Carol Carty mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Watchung Hills Regional High School, Warren, New Jersey.
Kathleen Connelly mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Homestead High School, Mequon, Wisconsin.
Benjamin DeLorio mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Belmont High School, Belmont, Massachusetts.
Philip Frankel mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Hunter College High School, New York, New York.
Brittany Holden mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Dutch Fork High School, Irmo, South Carolina.
Alison Huenger mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Manhasset High School, Manhasset, New York.
Toni Ireland mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Centennial High School, Ellicott City, Maryland.
Robert Juranitch mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the University School of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Sir Norman Wisdom (1915–2010), English comedian, singer and actor, best known for his smash hit films of the 1950s as the downtrodden, accident-prone little man in the shrunken suit and skewhiff cap. A physical comedian, Wisdom did his trademark trip-up on the red carpet after being knighted by the Queen.
Andrea Jurgens mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Dutch Fork High School, Irmo, South Carolina.
Karen Lucci mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Hopewell Valley Central High School, Pennington, New Jersey.
Shae Lucero mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Valencia High School, Los Lunas, New Mexico.
Molly Mordechai mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the North Shore High School, Glen Head, New York.
Caroline Odden mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
Pascal Descamps (born 1961), a French astronomer who works at the "Institut de mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides" in Paris on the modeling the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, with particular application to observations of their mutual phenomena. He has also studied the volcanoes on the satellite Io and has worked on the Uranian system using adaptive optics.
Todd Pannett mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Parkway Central High School, Chesterfield, Missouri.
Philippe Robutel (born 1964), a French astronomer who works at the "Institut de mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides" in Paris on the stability of the three-body problem, especially on the existence of quasiperiodic motions for the application of KAM theory.
Vanessa Parker mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Friendswood High School, Friendswood, Texas.
Birant Ramazan mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Davidson Academy of Nevada, Reno, Nevada.
Cesare Burali-Forti (1861–1931), an Italian mathematician who taught at the Military Academy in Turin. He discovered a paradox in Cantor's set theory: since the ordinal number of a set of ordinals is greater than the ordinal of each set element, "the ordinal of the set of all ordinals" is a self-contradictory concept.
Morecambe and Wise, British comic double act Eric Morecambe (1926–1984) and Ernie Wise (1925–1999) teamed up in the 1940s to create Britain's finest stage double act and later became TV favorites. Eric, `the one with the glasses', was known for his witty retorts, giving slaps to the cheeks of Ernie for plays `what he wrote'.
Jean-Eudes Arlot (born 1948), a French astronomer and current director of the "Institut de mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides" in Paris and chair of the IAU Commission 20 working group on satellites. He has worked on a theory of the motions of Jupiter's Galilean satellites and organised international campaigns to observe the mutual phenomena of these bodies.
Korin Riske mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Sunset High School, Portland, Oregon.
Lara Shamieh mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Jesuit High School, Portland, Oregon.
Vladimir Shapovalov mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Bronx High School of Science, Bronx, New York.
Robert Snyder mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Munster High School, Munster, Indiana.
Paul Strode mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Fairview High School, Boulder, Colorado.
Élie Cartan (1869–1951), a French mathematician whose major contribution is the development of the theory of exterior differential forms, which he applied to the study of Lie groups, differential geometry and systems of differential equations.
Javier Licandro (born 1966), an Uruguayan astronomer at the Isaac Newton Telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, who works on the physical properties of minor bodies and trans-Neptunian objects.
John Zarnecki (born 1949), a British astronomer of the Open University, Milton Keynes, who has developed spacecraft instrumentation to study the surfaces and atmospheres of planets, satellites and small bodies. He is a PI for the Huygens probe/lander on the Cassini mission to Saturn and Saturn VI (Titan).
Nikol Strother mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Los Alamos High School, Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Brandon Sullivan mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Wellington School, Columbus, Ohio.
Nilus, son of Oceanus and Tethys, is the personified god of the river Nile in classical mythology. The annual ebb and flow of the Nile sparked the advent of agriculture and farming around 6500 years ago. This inexorably led to the development of an ancient Egyptian civilization that was a keystone for those that followed.
Shane Thread mentored a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Signature School, Evansville, Indiana.
Kandy S. Jarvis (born 1966) is a geologist who has made seminal contributions to solar system object composition science and supported human space flight endeavors. She was a primary investigator and writer of the Columbia accident Crew Survival Report
Paul Allen Horbatt (born 1946), a skilled mechanical craftsman who has contributed greatly to the development of the instrumentation at Goodricke-Pigott Observatory, near Tucson, where this minor planet was discovered. His familiarity with detector enclosures and vacuum seals greatly speeded the fabrication of the instruments
The White Rabbit, character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. When Alice hears the Rabbit (who, of course, has pink eyes) talking to itself, she follows it down a huge rabbit-hole under a hedge, and her adventures begin. The name was suggested by T. Urata, and the citation was prepared by R. E. Asher.
Zahi Hawass (born 1947), an Egyptian archeologist who showed unfailing dedication in the battle of preserving Egypt's monuments and antiquities. He has also been involved in many important discoveries such as the pyramid builder's necropolis at Giza and golden mummies of El Bahariya Oasis.
