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 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 ''''., 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, discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801, while its best-known entry is Pluto, listed as. Both are among the 3.1% of numbered minor planets with names, mostly of people, places, and figures from mythology and fiction. and are currently the lowest-numbered unnamed and highest-numbered named minor planets, respectively.
There are more than a thousand minor-planet discoverers observing from a growing list of registered observatories. The most prolific discoverers are Spacewatch, LINEAR, MLS, NEAT and CSS. It is expected that the upcoming survey by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will discover another 5 million minor planets during the next ten years—almost a tenfold increase from current numbers. While all main-belt asteroids with a diameter above have been discovered, there might be as many as 10 trillion -sized asteroids or larger out to the orbit of Jupiter; and more than a trillion minor planets in the Kuiper belt. For minor planets grouped by a particular aspect or property, see .
Description of partial lists
The list of minor planets consists of more than 700 partial lists, each containing 1000 minor planets grouped into 10 tables. The data is sourced from the Minor Planet Center and expanded with data from the JPL SBDB, Johnston's archive and others '. For an overview of all existing partial lists, see .The information given for a minor planet includes a permanent and provisional designation ', a citation that links to the meanings of minor planet names, the discovery date, location, and credited discoverers ', a category with a more refined classification than the principal grouping represented by the background color ', a mean-diameter, sourced from JPL's SBDB or otherwise calculated estimates in italics , and a reference to the corresponding pages at MPC and JPL SBDB.
The MPC may credit one or several astronomers, a survey or similar program, or even the observatory site with the discovery. In the first column of the table, an existing stand-alone article is linked in boldface, while redirects are never linked. Discoverers, discovery site and category are only linked if they differ from the preceding catalog entry.
Example
Designation
After discovery, minor planets generally receive a provisional designation, e.g., then a leading sequential number in parentheses, e.g., turning it into a permanent designation. Optionally, a name can be given, replacing the provisional part of the designation, e.g..In modern times, a minor planet receives a sequential number only after it has been observed several times over at least 4 oppositions. Minor planets whose orbits are not precisely known are known by their provisional designation. This rule was not necessarily followed in earlier times, and some bodies received a number but subsequently became lost minor planets. The 2000 recovery of, which had been lost for nearly 89 years, eliminated the last numbered lost asteroid. Only after a number is assigned is the minor planet eligible to receive a name. Usually the discoverer has up to 10 years to pick a name; many minor planets now remain unnamed. Especially towards the end of the twentieth century, large-scale automated asteroid discovery programs such as LINEAR have increased the pace of discoveries so much that the vast majority of minor planets will most likely never receive names.
For these reasons, the sequence of numbers only approximately matches the timeline of discovery. In extreme cases, such as lost minor planets, there may be a considerable mismatch: for instance the high-numbered was originally discovered in 1937, but it was lost until 2003. Only after it was rediscovered could its orbit be established and a number assigned.
Discoverers
The MPC credits more than 1,000 professional and amateur astronomers as discoverers of minor planets. Many of them have discovered only a few minor planets or even just co-discovered a single one. Moreover, a discoverer does not need to be a human being. There are about 300 programs, surveys and observatories credited as discoverers. Among these, a small group of U.S. programs and surveys actually account for most of all discoveries made so far . As the total of numbered minor planets is growing by the tens of thousands every year, all statistical figures are constantly changing. In contrast to the Top 10 discoverers displayed in this articles, the MPC summarizes the total of discoveries somewhat differently, that is by a distinct group of discoverers. For example, bodies discovered in the Palomar–Leiden Survey are directly credited to the program's principal investigators.Discovery site
Observatories, telescopes and surveys that report astrometric observations of small Solar System bodies to the Minor Planet Center receive a numeric or alphanumeric MPC code such as 675 for the Palomar Observatory, or G96 for the Mount Lemmon Survey. On numbering, the MPC may directly credit such an observatory or program as the discoverer of an object, rather than one or several astronomers.Category
In this catalog, minor planets are classified into one of 8 principal orbital groups and highlighted with a distinct color. These are:The vast majority of minor planets are evenly distributed between the inner-, central and outer parts of the asteroid belt, which are separated by the two Kirkwood gaps at 2.5 and 2.82 AU. Nearly 97.5% of all minor planets are main-belt asteroids, while Jupiter trojans, Mars-crossing and near-Earth asteroids each account for less than 1% of the overall population. Only a small number of distant minor planets, that is the centaurs and trans-Neptunian objects, have been numbered so far. In the partial lists, table column "category" further refines this principal grouping:
- main-belt asteroids show their family membership based on the synthetic hierarchical clustering method by Nesvorný,
- resonant asteroids are displayed by their numerical ratio and include the Hildas, Thules and Griquas, while the Jupiter trojans display whether they belong to the Greek or Trojan camp,
- Hungaria asteroids, are labelled in italics, when they are not members of the collisional family
- near-Earth objects are divided into the Aten, Amor, Apollo, and Atira group, with some of them being potentially hazardous asteroids, and/or larger than one kilometer in diameter as determined by the MPC.
- trans-Neptunian objects are divided into dynamical subgroups including cubewanos, scattered disc objects, plutinos and other Neptunian resonances,
- comet-like and/or retrograde objects with a TJupiter value below 2 are tagged with damocloid,
- other unusual objects based on MPC's and Johnston's lists are labelled unusual,
- binary and trinary asteroids with companions are tagged with "moon" and link to their corresponding entry in minor-planet moon,
- objects with an exceptionally long or short rotation period are tagged with "slow" or "fast" and link to their corresponding entry in List of slow rotators and List of fast rotators, respectively.
- minor planets which also received a periodic-comet number link to the List of numbered comets
| Principal orbital groups | MPs | MPs | Distribution | Orbital criteria |
| 3,392 | 0.42% | q < 1.3 AU | ||
| 7,321 | 0.92% | 1.3 AU < q < 1.666 AU; a < 3.2 AU | ||
| 230,978 | 29.12% | a < 2.5 AU; q > 1.666 AU | ||
| 280,654 | 35.38% | 2.5 AU < a < 2.82 AU; q > 1.666 AU | ||
| 260,085 | 32.79% | 2.82 AU < a < 4.6 AU; q > 1.666 AU | ||
| 9,610 | 1.21% | 4.6 AU < a < 5.5 AU; e < 0.3 | ||
| 195 | 0.02% | 5.5 AU < a < 30.1 AU | ||
| 1,020 | 0.12% | a > 30.1 AU | ||
| Total | 793,066 | 100% | Source: JPL's SBDB |