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".
Ngari (occasionally spelled as Ali), a prefecture in northwest Tibet. It is nicknamed "the top of the roof of the world" as most of the region is over 4500 m above sea level.
Georgi Rakovski (1821–1867), a 19th-century Bulgarian revolutionary and writer and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival and resistance against Ottoman rule.
Mildred (1939–2008) and Richard Loving (1933–1975) married in spite of anti-miscegenation laws. They filed the lawsuit Loving v. Virginia that ultimately succeeded in striking the laws down following a United States Supreme Court ruling in 1967.
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document "SBDB".
