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Initially, the names given to minor planets followed the same pattern as the other planets: names from Greek or Roman myths, with a preference for female names. With the discovery in 1898 of the first body found to cross the orbit of Mars, a different choice was deemed appropriate, and 433 Eros was chosen.
Proper names of planetary systems often follow common themes – for example, the planets of the star Copernicus are named after European astronomers. Proper names for planets outside of the Solar System – known as exoplanets – are chosen by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) through public naming contests known as NameExoWorlds.
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 approved and published in a bulletin by IAU's Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN). [ 1 ]
The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young protostar orbited by a protoplanetary disk. There are eight planets within the Solar System; planets outside of the solar system are also known as exoplanets.
Naming of planets may refer to: Astronomical naming conventions § Planets, for the planets of the Solar System; Planetary nomenclature, for features on those planets; Exoplanet naming convention, for planets outside the Solar System; Minor-planet designation, for initial designations of dwarf planets, asteroids etc.
However, individually, some of the planets can be associated with positive qualities. The names of the seven planets in Mandaic are borrowed from Akkadian. [7] Some of the names are ultimately derived from Sumerian, since Akkadian had borrowed many deity names from Sumerian. Each planet is said to be carried in a ship.
A few minor planets are named after exotic entities such as supercomputers or have an unknown origin. The first few thousand minor planets have all been named, with the near-Earth asteroid (4596) 1981 QB currently being the lowest-numbered unnamed minor planet. [2] The first 3 pages in the below table contain 1,000 named entries each.
Name based on the brightest galaxy in the group when that name is commonly used for identification (e.g. the M81 Group); this is only applicable to groups of galaxies within approximately 50 Mpc; The most commonly-used catalog number (e.g. Abell 3266) Note that group and cluster names are proper nouns.