Data Set Overview : This data set includes names, designations, and discovery circumstances for the numbered asteroids, sorted in order of number. This data set supersedes past versions of both the ASTNAMES and DISCOVER asteroid data sets. It represents an extension of a file originally prepared by Pilcher (1979) [PILCHER1979] for the Tucson Revised Index of Asteroid Data (TRIAD) and updated in Pilcher (1989) [PILCHER1989] for the Asteroids II database. The data for asteroids numbered 4045 and greater were either provided by the Minor Planet Center or extracted from the Minor Planet Circulars, which are published by the Minor Planet Center on behalf of Commission 20 of the International Astronomical Union. In some cases, an institution or survey is credited with the discovery rather than an individual. No attempt has been made to correct the inconsistencies in the presentation of names (that is, some names are given with initials and some are not), or in the way locations are specified (for example, Pilcher distinguishes between the Lowell Observatory and Anderson Mesa locations in Flagstaff).  Due to the limitations of the ASCII character set, diacritical marks are lost in this machine-readable form. No adjustment has been made in the spelling of the names to correct for the loss of diacritical marks. This choice was made to enable users to search on a known spelling of the name.  This version of the data set contains the names, designations, and discovery circumstances for all asteroids numbered as of the 2003 March 18 batch of Minor Planet Circulars, and includes 58092 entries.  References: Pilcher, F. 1979. Circumstances of minor planet discovery. In Asteroids (T. Gehrels, Ed.), pp. 1130-1154. Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson. [PILCHER1979]  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. [PILCHER1989]  Errata :  The May 1 2003 batch of MPCs had two errata pertinent to the asteroid names in this file. First, the name associated with asteroid number 13366 (Khege) has been transferred to asteroid number 12565. Secondly, the name associated with asteroid 24609 (Evgenij) has been changed to Evgenaleks.  Modification History : The discover data set is a combination of the data originally provided in the astnames and discover data sets. Astname was first introduced into PDS at the April 1993 asteroid data sets review, and has been updated yearly since that time. Discover was first introduced at the April 1994 asteroid data sets review, and has also been updated yearly since then. At the March 1996 review, for the first time the two data sets were combined into a single data set. Updates of both the astnames and discover components consists of adding entries for asteroids numbered since the last update. The 'discnote' file, with notes on individual asteroids, represents notes prepared by Pilcher for his original version, and has not been updated since the first PDS version of this data set.  Parameters : The data table includes fields for asteroid catalog number, name, principal provisional designation, discovery date, discovery location, and the name(s) of the discoverer(s).

Review : This data underwent external peer review on May 29, 2003.  Limitations : Only asteroids numbered as of March 18, 2003 are included.