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.
Official naming citations of newly named small Solar System bodies are published in MPC's Minor Planet Circulars several times a year.[1] Recent citations can also be found on the JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB).[2] Until his death in 2016, German astronomer Lutz D. Schmadel compiled these citations into the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (DMP) and regularly updated the collection.[3][4] Based on Paul Herget's The Names of the Minor Planets,[5] Schmadel also researched the unclear origin of numerous asteroids, most of which had been named prior to World War II. Meanings marked with * are from legacy sources may not be accurate. This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document "SBDB".
Oliver L. White (born 1984) is a research scientist at the NASA SETI Institute. He served as a science team post-doctoral researcher for geophysics investigations for the New Horizons Mission to Pluto.
Karl E. Whittenburg (born 1966) is a mission operations engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He served as the Deputy Mission Operations Manager for the New Horizons Mission to Pluto.
Stephen P. Williams (born 1953) is a software engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He served as the Command and Data Handling Engineering Lead for the New Horizons Mission to Pluto.
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document "SBDB".
