How are asteroids named?
Asteroids are given a preliminary designation by the Minor Planet Centre, when two nights observations of the new object are available. All the numbers and letters used related to the date of discovery of the object: a 4-digit number indicating the year; a space; a letter to show the half-month; another letter to show the order within the half-month; and an optional number to indicate the number of times the second letter has been repeated in that half-month period.

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last updated on 25/09/06
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