Data Set Information
DATA_SET_NAME ASTEROID NAMES AND DISCOVERY V1.0
DATA_SET_ID EAR-A-5-DDR-ASTNAMES-DISCOVERY-V1.0
NSSDC_DATA_SET_ID
DATA_SET_TERSE_DESCRIPTION
DATA_SET_DESCRIPTION Data Set Overview:This data set includes names, designations, and discoverycircumstances for the numbered asteroids, sorted in order of catalognumber. A similar file sorted in alphabetic order by name is alsoavailable in the Small Bodies Node asteroid data archive. This data set supercedes past versions of both the ASTNAMES andDISCOVER asteroid data sets. It represents an extension of a fileoriginally prepared by Pilcher (1979) for the old Tucson RevisedIndex of Asteroid Data (TRIAD) and updated in Pilcher (1989) for theAsteroids II database. The data for asteroids numbered 4045 andhigher were either provided by the Minor Planet Center or extractedfrom the Minor Planet Circulars, which are published by the MinorPlanet Center on behalf of Commission 20 of the InternationalAstronomical Union. In some cases, an institution or survey is credited with thediscovery rather than an individual. No attempt has been made tocorrect the inconsistencies in the presentation of names (that is,some names are given with initials and some are not), or in the waylocations are specified (for example, Pilcher distinguishes betweenthe Lowell Observatory and Anderson Mesa locations in Flagstaff). Due to the limitations of the ASCII character set, diacritical marksare lost in this machine-readable form. This version of the data set contains the names, designations, anddiscovery circumstances for all asteroids numbered as of the 1996February 4 batch of Minor Planet Circulars, and includes 6842entries. References: Pilcher, F. 1979. Circumstances of minor planetdiscovery. In Asteroids (T. Gehrels, Ed.), pp. 1130-1154. Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson. Pilcher, F. 1989. The circumstances of minor planet discovery. In Asteroids II (R. P. Binzel, T. Gehrels, and M. S. Matthews, Eds.), pp. 1002-1033. Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson. Modification History: The discover data set is a combination of the data originally provided in the astnames and discover data sets. Astname wasfirst introduced into PDS at the April 1993 asteroid datasets review,and has been updated yearly since that time. Discover was firstintroduced at the April 1994 asteroid datasets review, and has alsobeen updated yearly since then. At the March 1996 review, for thefirst time the two data sets have been combined into a single dataset. Updates of both the astnames and discover components consistsof adding data which have become available since the last update. DATA_SET_UPDATE_PERIOD : 1.0 Parameters:The data table includes fields for asteroid catalog number, name,principal provisional designation, discovery date, discoverylocation, and the name(s) of the discoverer(s). Data:This data set is released sorted in order of asteroid catalog number,in the file nddc1.tab. An additional file, nddc2.tab, with identicalcontents but sorted in alphabetical order by name, is provided by theSmall Bodies Node asteroid data archive for the convenience ofusers.
DATA_SET_RELEASE_DATE 1996-03-29T00:00:00.000Z
START_TIME 1801-01-01T12:00:00.000Z
STOP_TIME 2008-04-20T12:00:00.000Z
MISSION_NAME SUPPORT ARCHIVES
MISSION_START_DATE 2004-03-22T12:00:00.000Z
MISSION_STOP_DATE N/A (ongoing)
TARGET_NAME ASTEROID
TARGET_TYPE ASTEROID
INSTRUMENT_HOST_ID PUBLIT
INSTRUMENT_NAME COMPILATION
INSTRUMENT_ID COMPIL
INSTRUMENT_TYPE UNKNOWN
NODE_NAME Small Bodies
ARCHIVE_STATUS SUPERSEDED
CONFIDENCE_LEVEL_NOTE Review:This data set underwent external peer review on March 29, 1996. Limitations:Only asteroids numbered as of February 4, 1996 are included.
CITATION_DESCRIPTION Citation TBD
ABSTRACT_TEXT This data set includes names, designations, and discovery circumstances for the numbered asteroids, sorted in order of catalog number. A similar file sorted in alphabetic order by name is also available in the Small Bodies Node asteroid data archive.
PRODUCER_FULL_NAME DAVID J. THOLEN
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