Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System.
A planet in the Solar System beyond the asteroid belt, and hence refers to the gas giants. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune Pulsar planet: A planet that orbits a pulsar or a rapidly rotating neutron star. PSR B1257+12 A, B and C: Rogue planet: Also known as an interstellar planet. A planet that is not bound to any star, stellar remnant or ...
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.
Named minor planet Provisional This minor planet was named for... Ref · Catalog 10101 Fourier: 1992 BM 2: Joseph Fourier (1768–1830), a French mathematician who exerted a strong influence on mathematical physics through his Théorie analytique de la chaleur (1822), wherein he showed that the conduction of heat in solid bodies may be analyzed in terms of infinite mathematical series, the so ...
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. [ a ] Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term minor planet , but that year's meeting reclassified minor planets and comets into dwarf planets and ...
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. The first 13 and 33 pages contain at least 500 and 100 named entries each, respectively.
A planet's year depends on its distance from its star; the farther a planet is from its star, the longer the distance it must travel and the slower its speed, since it is less affected by its star's gravity. No planet's orbit is perfectly circular, and hence the distance of each from the host star varies over the course of its year.
The term 'dwarf planet' arguably contains two words, a noun (planet) and an adjective (dwarf). Thus, the term could suggest that a dwarf planet is a type of planet, even though the IAU explicitly defines a dwarf planet as not so being. By this formulation therefore, 'dwarf planet' and 'minor planet' are best considered compound nouns.