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 five-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.
- Submit
astrometric observations via a web form.
- 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 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 Nov. 26.66 UT.
- There are six NEA candidates in need of confirmation at the present time (Nov. 26.66 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 2011 Mar. 13]
- 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.
- The Observation Summary Pages are no longer available, since the
full MPC/MPO/MPS batches are freely available
in the
MPCArchive service.
- 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.
- 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 2012 June 16]
- Details on stellar
occultations by minor planets from IOTA.
- Minor Planet Lightcurve data
[Updated 2006 Mar. 28] Updated files currently in preparation.
Miscellaneous
- Index of the MPC pages.
- Credits (and awards)
-
User-feedback form