The Minor Planet Center is an organization that is part of the 3rd Division, Planetary Systems Sciences, the International Astronomical Union (UAI) and operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
For the assignment of the International Astronomical Union, the organization is responsible for collecting and storing observational data on the smaller bodies of the Solar System (asteroids and comets), calculating the orbit and publishing such information. The Minor Planet Center provides a number of on-line services to facilitate asteroid and comet observation, including the full body orbite catalog (MPCORB), which can be freely downloaded.
The Minor Planet Center was founded at the University of Cincinnati in 1947 under the leadership of Paul Herget; after its withdrawal in 1978, the organization's headquarters were moved to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the direction was entrusted to Brian Marsden until 2006 and then to Timothy B. Spahr and associate director Gareth V. Williams. Voices correlateemodify wikitesto Links externalize the wikitesto
wiki
