Meanings of minor planet names: 177001–178000

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 approved and published in a bulletin by IAU's Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN).[1] Before May 2021, citations were published in MPC's Minor Planet Circulars for many decades.[2] Recent citations can also be found on the JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB).[3] 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.[4][5]

Based on Paul Herget's The Names of the Minor Planets,[6] Schmadel also researched the unclear origin of numerous asteroids, most of which had been named prior to World War II. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: SBDB New namings may only be added to this list below after official publication as the preannouncement of names is condemned.[7] The WGSBN publishes a comprehensive guideline for the naming rules of non-cometary small Solar System bodies.[8]

177001–177100 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
177065 Samuelnoah 2003 FP7 Twins Samuel Rodriguez (born 2019) and Noah Rodriguez (born 2019) are great-grandchildren of James Whitney Young, who discovered this minor planet. JPL · 177065

177101–177200 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
177120 Ocampo Uría 2003 GZ51 Adriana Ocampo (born 1955) was the NASA Headquarters Program Program Executive for the New Horizons mission to Pluto. JPL · 177120
177148 Pätzold 2003 QJ85 Martin Pätzold (born 1960), Max Planck Institute, worked as a Science Team Collaborator for radio science for the New Horizons mission to Pluto. JPL · 177148
177157 Skoffelza 2003 SF33 Description available (see ref). Please summarize in your own words. IAU · 177157

177201–177300 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
There are no named minor planets in this number range

177301–177400 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
There are no named minor planets in this number range

177401–177500 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
177415 Queloz 2004 CK3 Didier Queloz (born 1966), Swiss astrophysicist at Geneva University known for the discovery of 51 Pegasi b, the first extrasolar planet around a main-sequence start JPL · 177415

177501–177600 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
There are no named minor planets in this number range

177601–177700 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
177625 Dembicky 2004 JD Jack M. Dembicky (born 1966) was the telescope operations specialist, and is now the support astronomer at New Mexico's Apache Point Observatory. He was the lead 2MASS telescope operator at the F. L. Whipple Observatory at Mount Hopkins, AZ (1997–2000). He has an M.S. in physics (1996) from Wichita State University. IAU · 177625
177659 Paolacel 2005 CE77 Paola Celletti (born 1956), Italian architect from the University of Rome "La Sapienza". She has been an amateur astronomer and involved in public outreach. JPL · 177659
177667 Schieven 2005 EV37 Gerald Henry Moriarty Schieven (born 1958) is a Canadian astronomer who obtained his PhD at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Gerald was President of the RASC London Centre in 1980. He has worked at JPL, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and the Herzberg Millimetre Astronomy Group. IAU · 177667

177701–177800 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
177722 Pelletier 2005 GJ205 Frederic J. Pelletier (born 1974), a senior engineer at KinetX, who worked as Navigation Lead for the New Horizons mission to Pluto JPL · 177722
177770 Saulanwu 2005 JE163 Sau Lan Wu (b. 1940s) is a Chinese-American particle physicist. She is renowned for her integral leadership and participation in the discoveries of the charm quark, the [gluon], and the Higgs boson. Wu is the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an experimentalist at CERN. JPL · 177770
177771 Bretz 2005 JA165 Harley “J Harlen” Bretz (1882–1981) was an American geologist. His fieldwork of the Channeled Scablands on the Columbia River Plateau led him to propose that the landscape resulted from cataclysmic flooding. His theory has been vindicated by decades of evidence and the discovery of the ancient glacial Lake Missoula as the flood source. IAU · 177771

177801–177900 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
177830 Rubenhagen 2005 NL44 Description available (see ref). Please summarize in your own words. IAU · 177830
177853 Lumezzane 2005 PQ3 Lumezzane, a small town in northern Italy, near Brescia JPL · 177853

177901–178000 edit

Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog
177967 Chouchihkang 2006 PY32 Chih-Kang Chou (born 1935), a Chinese-born astronomer, who taught and conducted research in astronomy at the National Central University in Taiwan for 30 years. JPL · 177967
177982 Popilnia 2006 QE34 Popilnia Raion, a district of Zhytomyr Oblast, located in northwestern Ukrainian, and motherland of poet Maksym Rylsky JPL · 177982

References edit

  1. ^ "WGSBN Bulletin Archive". Working Group Small Body Nomenclature. 14 May 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  2. ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  3. ^ "JPL – Solar System Dynamics: Discovery Circumstances". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  4. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  5. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2006). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – Addendum to Fifth Edition: 2003–2005. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. ISBN 978-3-540-34360-8. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  6. ^ Herget, Paul (1968). The Names of the Minor Planets. Cincinnati, Ohio: Minor Planet Center, Cincinnati Observatory. OCLC 224288991.
  7. ^ "Guide to Minor Body Astrometry – When can I name my discovery?". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  8. ^ "Minor Planet Naming Guidelines (Rules and Guidelines for naming non-cometary small Solar-System bodies) – v1.0" (PDF). Working Group Small Body Nomenclature (PDF). 20 December 2021.


Preceded by Meanings of minor planet names
List of minor planets: 177,001–178,000
Succeeded by