The five
minor planets were discovered between 1995 and 1999 by the Beijing Schmidt CCD Asteroid Program at the Xinglong observation station in north China.
Jayaprakash, Mukherjee, Sarkar and Vaishnav are some of the new
minor planets named after Indian students who became eligible for the honour by virtue of their performance at an international school science fair organised by microchip maker Intel.
Rob Weryk, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA), first spotted the object in October 19 and submitted his discovery to the
Minor Planet Center.
Rob Weryk, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA), was first to identify the moving object and submit it to the
Minor Planet Center.
The confirmation was announced by the International Astronomical Union's
Minor Planet Center, the international clearing house for all such discoveries, on February4, after eight other observatories confirmed the sighting.
Starting in 1977 with discovery of
minor planet 2060 Chiron, numerous icy objects similar to Pluto with eccentric orbits were found.
On 2014 March 20 at 08:04,
minor planet (163) Erigone will occult Regulus.
The comet may be the brightest to appear in the sky since 1965 and may even be visible in daylight, the International Astronomical Union's
Minor Planet Center predicted.
Graham Relf now posts useful information on the website of the Computing Section including finder charts of asteroids one month or so either side of opposition (for objects brighter than mag 12) as well as a list of forthcoming appulses of
minor planet pairs which approach within 3' of each other.
A few
minor planet occultations were attempted by our regular group of observers but no positive events were observed.
Upon further evaluation, those reports were forwarded to the
Minor Planet Center at Harvard University, and eventually on to the Near-Earth Object Program operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA.
CSBN (the official body of astronomers) accepted the committee's refreshing proposal to name
minor planet 18349 in honour of the 13th- century Welsh prince.
