A minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is neither a dominant planet nor originally classified as a comet. Minor planets can be dwarf planets, asteroids, trojans, centaurs, Kuiper belt objects, and other trans-Neptunian objects.^[1] The first minor planet discovered was Ceres in 1801 (although from the time of its discovery until 1851 it was considered to be a true planet). The orbits of more than 570,000 objects have been archived at the Minor Planet Center.^[2]

The term "minor planet" has been used since the 19th century to describe these objects.^[3] The term planetoid has also been used, especially for larger objects.^[4] Historically, the terms asteroid, minor planet, and planetoid have been more or less synonymous,^[4][5] but the issue has been complicated by the discovery of numerous minor planets beyond the orbit of Jupiter and especially Neptune that are not universally considered asteroids.^[5] Minor planets seen outgassing may receive a dual classification as a comet.

Before 2006 the International Astronomical Union had officially used the term minor planet. During its 2006 meeting, the Union reclassified minor planets and comets into dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies.^[6] Objects are called dwarf planets if their self-gravity is sufficient to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium, that is, an ellipsoidal shape, with all other minor planets and comets called "small Solar System bodies".^[6] The IAU states: "the term 'minor planet' may still be used, but generally the term 'small solar system body' will be preferred."^[7] However, for purposes of numbering and naming, the traditional distinction between minor planet and comet is still followed.

The Saturnian moon Mimas is the smallest body known to be in hydrostatic equilibrium (though not eligible to be a dwarf planet since it does not directly orbit the Sun), while the asteroid Pallas may be the largest that is not. The IAU has so far officially classified five objects as dwarf planets. In order of distance from the Sun, they are Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.

Populations[link]

Hundreds of thousands of minor planets have been discovered within the Solar System, with the 2009 rate of discovery at over 3,000 per month. Of the more than 535,000 registered minor planets, 251,651 have orbits known well enough to be assigned permanent official numbers.^[8][2] Of these, 16,154 have official names^[2]. As of September 2010, the lowest-numbered unnamed minor planet is (3708) 1974 FV₁;^[9] but there are also some named minor planets above number 240,000.^[10]

There are various broad minor-planet populations:

• Asteroids; traditionally, most have been bodies in the inner Solar System.^[5]
  • Main-belt asteroids, those following roughly circular orbits between Mars and Jupiter. These are the original and best-known group of asteroids or minor planets.
  • Near-Earth asteroids, those whose orbits take them inside the orbit of Mars. Further subclassification of these, based on orbital distance, is used:^[11]
    • Aten asteroids, those that have semi-major axes of less than one Earth orbit. Those Aten asteroids that have their aphelion within Earth's orbit are known as Apohele asteroids;
    • Amor asteroids are those near-Earth asteroids that approach the orbit of the Earth from beyond, but do not cross it. Amor asteroids are further subdivided into four subgroups, depending on where their semimajor axis falls between Earth's orbit and the asteroid belt;
    • Apollo asteroids are those asteroids with a semimajor axis greater than Earth's, while having a perihelion distance of 1.017 AU or less. Like Aten asteroids, Apollo asteroids are Earth-crossers.
  • Earth trojans, asteroids sharing Earth's orbit and gravitationally locked to it. As of 2011, the only one known is 2010 TK₇.^[12]
  • Mars trojans, asteroids sharing Mars's orbit and gravitationally locked to it. As of 2007, eight such asteroids are known.^[13]
  • Jupiter trojans, asteroids sharing Jupiter's orbit and gravitationally locked to it. Numerically they are estimated to equal the main-belt asteroids.
• Distant minor planets; an umbrella term for minor planets in the outer Solar System.
  • Centaurs, bodies in the outer Solar System between Jupiter and Neptune. They have unstable orbits due to the gravitational influence of the giant planets, and therefore must have come from elsewhere, probably outside Neptune.^[14]
  • Neptune trojans, bodies sharing Neptune's orbit and gravitationally locked to it. Although only a handful are known, there is evidence that Neptune trojans are more numerous than either the asteroids in the asteroid belt or the Jupiter trojans.^[15]
  • Trans-Neptunian objects, bodies at or beyond the orbit of Neptune, the outermost planet.
    • The Kuiper belt, objects inside an apparent population drop-off approximately 55 AU from the Sun.
      • Classical Kuiper belt objects, also known as cubewanos, are in primordial, relatively circular orbits that are not in resonance with Neptune.
      • Plutinos, bodies like Pluto that are in a 2:3 resonance with Neptune, and other resonant trans-Neptunian objects. This is a rather large group.
    • Scattered disc, objects with aphelia outside the Kuiper belt. These are thought to have been scattered by Neptune.
    • Detached objects such as Sedna, with both aphelia and perihelia outside the Kuiper belt.
    • The Oort Cloud, a hypothetical population thought to be the source of long-period comets that may extend out to 50,000 AU from the Sun.

Naming[link]

A newly discovered minor planet is given a provisional designation (such as 2002 AT₄) consisting of the year of discovery and an alphanumeric code indicating the half-month of discovery and the sequence within that half-month. Once an asteroid's orbit has been confirmed, it is given a number, and later may also be given a name (e.g. 433 Eros). The formal naming convention uses parentheses around the number, but dropping the parentheses is quite common. Informally, it is common to drop the number altogether, or to drop it after the first mention when a name is repeated in running text.

Minor planets that have been given a number but not a name keep their provisional designation, e.g. (29075) 1950 DA. As modern discovery techniques are finding vast numbers of new asteroids, they are increasingly being left unnamed. The earliest discovered to be left unnamed was for a long time (3360) 1981 VA, now 3360 Syrinx; as of September 2008, this distinction is held by (3708) 1974 FV₁. On rare occasions, a small object's provisional designation may become used as a name in itself: the still unnamed (15760) 1992 QB₁ gave its "name" to a group of Kuiper belt objects which became known as cubewanos.

A few objects are cross-listed as both comets and asteroids, such as 4015 Wilson–Harrington, which is also listed as 107P/Wilson–Harrington.

Numbering[link]

Minor planets are awarded an official number once their orbits are confirmed. With the increasing rapidity of discovery, these are now six-figure numbers. The switch from five figures to six figures arrived with the publication of the Minor Planet Circular (MPC) of October 19, 2005, which saw the highest numbered minor planet jump from 99947 to 118161.

Sources for names[link]

The first few asteroids were named after figures from Greek and Roman mythology, but as such names started to dwindle the names of famous people, literary characters, discoverer's wives, children, and even television characters were used.

The first asteroid to be given a non-mythological name was 20 Massalia, named after the Greek name for the city of Marseilles. The first to be given an entirely non-Classical name was 45 Eugenia, named after Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III. For some time only female (or feminized) names were used; Alexander von Humboldt was the first man to have an asteroid named after him, but his name was feminized to 54 Alexandra. This unspoken tradition lasted until 334 Chicago was named; even then, oddly feminised names show up in the list for years after.

As the number of asteroids began to run into the hundreds, and eventually the thousands, discoverers began to give them increasingly frivolous names. The first hints of this were 482 Petrina and 483 Seppina, named after the discoverer's pet dogs. However, there was little controversy about this until 1971, upon the naming of 2309 Mr. Spock (the name of the discoverer's cat). Although the IAU subsequently banned pet names as sources, eccentric asteroid names are still being proposed and accepted, such as 4321 Zero, 6042 Cheshirecat, 9007 James Bond, 13579 Allodd and 24680 Alleven, and 26858 Misterrogers.

A well-established rule is that, unlike comets, minor planets may not be named after their discoverer(s). One way to circumvent this rule has been for astronomers to exchange the courtesy of naming their discoveries after each other. An exception to this rule is 96747 Crespodasilva, which was named after its discoverer, Lucy d'Escoffier Crespo da Silva, because she died shortly after the discovery, at age 22.^[16][17]

Names were adapted to various languages from the beginning. 1 Ceres, Ceres being its Anglo-Latin name, was actually named Cerere, the Italian form of the name. German, French, Arabic and Hindi use forms similar to the English, whereas Russian uses a form, Tserera, similar to the Italian. In Greek the name was translated to Demeter, the Greek equivalent of the Roman goddess Ceres. In the early years, before it started causing conflicts, asteroids named after Roman figures were generally translated in Greek; other examples are Hera for 3 Juno, Hestia for 4 Vesta, Chloris for 8 Flora, and Pistê for 37 Fides. In Chinese, the names are not given the Chinese forms of the deities they are named after, but rather typically have a syllable or two for the character of the deity or person, followed by 神 'god(dess)' or 女 'woman' if just one syllable, plus 星 'star/planet', so that most asteroid names are written with three Chinese characters. Thus Ceres is 谷神星 'grain goddess planet',^[18] Pallas is 智神星 'wisdom goddess planet', etc.

Special naming rules[link]

Minor-planet naming is not always a free-for-all: there are some populations for which rules have developed about the sources of names. For instance, centaurs (orbiting between Saturn and Neptune) are all named after mythological centaurs; Jupiter trojans after heroes from the Trojan War; resonant trans-Neptunian objects after underworld spirits; and non-resonant TNOs after creation deities.

Physical properties of comets and minor planets[link]

Commission 15^[19] of the International Astronomical Union is dedicated to the Physical Study of Comets & Minor Planets.

Archival data on the physical properties of comets and minor planets are found in the PDS Asteroid/Dust Archive.^[20] This includes standard asteroid physical characteristics such as the properties of binary systems, occultation timings and diameters, masses, densities, rotation periods, surface temperatures, albedoes, spin vectors, taxonomy, and absolute magnitudes and slopes. In addition, European Asteroid Research Node (E.A.R.N.), an association of asteroid research groups, maintains a Data Base of Physical and Dynamical Properties of Near Earth Asteroids.^[21]

Most detailed information is available from Category: Asteroids visited by spacecraft and Category: Comets visited by spacecraft.

See also[link]

• List of minor planets
• Solar System
• Groups of minor planets
• Small Solar System body
• Plutoid
• Quasi-satellite

External links[link]

• Minor Planet Center

References[link]