X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Minor Planet Center


Indiana Asteroid Program

By 1958, the program had produced 3,500 photographic plates showing 12,000 asteroid images and had published about 2,000 accurate positions in the Minor Planet Circular.

Uncertainty Parameter U

In order to quantify the uncertainty in a perturbed orbital solution for a minor planet in a concise fashion, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) has introduced the U parameter.


2010 KQ

It was given the asteroid designation 2010 KQ by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who identified its orbit as being very similar to that of the Earth.

Planets beyond Neptune

Noted Planet X sceptic Brian Marsden of Harvard University's Minor Planet Center pointed out that these discrepancies were a hundred times smaller than those noticed by Le Verrier, and could easily be due to observational error.


see also