IAU Minor Planet Center

IMPORTANT NOTICE: We can no longer provide updates to this site. Please use the mirror site.

The Minor Planet Center (MPC) operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), under the auspices of Division III of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The Minor Planet Center derives its operating budget from a three-year NASA grant.

The MPC is responsible for the designation of minor bodies in the solar system: minor planets; comets, in conjunction with the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT); and natural satellites (also in conjunction with CBAT). The MPC is also responsible for the efficient collection, computation, checking and dissemination of astrometric observations and orbits for minor planets and comets, via:

• Minor Planet Circulars (issued generally on a monthly basis)
• Minor Planet Circulars Orbit Supplement (MPO) (issued up to thirteen times per year)
• Minor Planet Circulars Supplement (MPS) (issued three or four times a month)
• Minor Planet Electronic Circulars (MPECs) (issued as necessary, generally at least once per day)

If you have a problem with the layout of the new-look MPC website, please check out the list of reported HTML issues. Also try viewing the printer-friendly versions of each page (there is a link at the top left of most pages).

MPC Publications and Services

• Publications and services overview.
• How do I report material to the MPC? Notes and technical details.
  • Information we need from observers in order to start using the new observation format.
• On-line MPECs.
• Web access to the computer services.
  • Brief descriptions of and information on how to access the various Web-based services, including PS/PDF versions of the MPCs, MPOs and MPSs.

MPC Financial Supporters

• Details on institutions and individuals who are contributing to the MPC.
• Support for computer equipment used by the MPC is provided by the Tamkin Foundation.

Services for Observers

• The NEO Confirmation Page
  • The NEO Confirmation Page (in R.A. order).
  • NEA candidate last added/updated (or page modified) on Feb. 12.46 UT.
  • There are seven NEA candidates in need of confirmation at the present time (Feb. 12.46 UT).
• Get NEO ratings for your observations.

• The NEO Page.
  • The NEA Observations Planning Aid.
  • Date of Last Observation of NEOs not seen in a while, with easy access to ephemerides.
  • Lists of bright and faint recovery opportunities for old one-opposition objects.
• Minor Planet & Comet Ephemeris Service (MPES)
  • Generate current ephemerides for an arbitrary list of (up to 100) minor planets and comets.
  • Generate an HTML page that you can put on your own web site to encourage others to follow-up your discoveries.
    • A collection of links to follow-up pages
• Natural Satellites Ephemeris Service
  • Generate ephemerides for the outer irregular satellites of the giant planets.
• New Object Ephemeris Generator
  • Generate ephemerides for "new" discoveries before assignment of official provisional designations.
• Identifying objects
  • MPChecker checks possible new minor planet suspects against known objects.
  • NEOChecker checks possible new NEO suspects against known objects.
  • CMTChecker checks possible new comet suspects against known objects.
  • NEOCMTChecker checks possible new NEO and comet suspects against known objects.
• MPC Orbit Database (MPCORB)
  • Download the freely-accessible MPC Orbit Database (MPCORB)
• The Distant Artificial Satellites Observation page
  • Allows you to observe artificial objects that may (or have been) confused with natural objects.
• Guide to Minor Body Astrometry
  • Notes for new or potential astrometric observers. [Updated 2009 December 18]
• Dates of Last Observation of Distant Objects
  • An MPES-aware listing of the dates of last observation of Centaurs, TNOs and SDOs.

• Sky coverage
  • Displays which parts of the sky have been searched recently.
  • Add your own coverage information.
• On-line access to the observation summary pages from each batch of MPCs.
  • Newly-available batches are normally put on-line several days after the ECS files are released.
  • Preliminary version of Observer Summary pages (for checking purposes).
• Ephemerides and orbital elements for comets, NEOs, distant objects and bright minor planets.
• Prepare customized versions of the observable-object lists.
• Prepare mini normal places from measurements obtained from GPS-tagged video fames.

• Known problems with contacting certain e-mail addresses.
• Links to mirror copies of many of the MPC web pages.

• Documentation about the various aspects of the MPC's operations.

Lists and plots

• All sorts of tabulations and plots, including NEO tables and lists of minor planet names.
• The Animations Page: A collection of various animations prepared at the MPC.
• List of new features on these pages. [Updated 2009 Mar. 30]
• Details on stellar occultations by minor planets from IOTA.
• Minor Planet Lightcurve data [Updated 2006 Mar. 28]

Miscellaneous

• Astronomical headlines from recent circulars.
  • Press Information Sheets [Updated 2000 July 21]
• Index of the MPC/CBAT/ICQ pages.
• Credits (and awards)
• User-feedback form