Contact
The WGSBN can be contacted at
contact@wgsbn-iau.org.
Problems with the website should be reported to secretary@wgsbn-iau.org.
Rotating Members Interest Form
The form for IAU members to register interest in becoming Rotating Members of the WGSBN in future years is
now available.
Name Proposal Link
Discoverers can use this link to access the name proposal
site. Registration is required to access the site. Discoverers who require
access should request access.
Support This Site
Information on how you can support the operation of this website.
Naming Guidelines
Comet Naming Guidelines
Minor Planet Naming Guidelines
(Translations)
Members
There are 15 members of the WGSBN, 11 of whom are voting members. The other four members, who are ex-officio, are representatives for the IAU WG Planetary System Nomenclature and the Minor Planet Center, as well
as the IAU President and General Secretary.
The current members of the WGSBN are listed below:
- Jana Tichá, Chair
- Keith Noll, Vice-Chair
- Gareth Williams, Secretary
- Yuliya Chernetenko
- Julio Fernández
- Daniel Green
- Pam Kilmartin
- Syuichi Nakano
- Ryan S. Park (Rotating Member)
- Driss Takir (Rotating Member)
- Jin Zhu
- Willy Benz, ex-officio (IAU President)
- Diana Worrall, ex-officio (IAU General Secretary)
- Rita Schulz, ex-officio (WGPSN)
- Peter Vereš, ex-officio (MPC)
Statistics
There are currently 24975
named minor planets.
The WGSBN is a Working Group (WG) of the
International Astronomical Union (IAU)
and is responsible for assigning names to minor planets, comets and satellites of minor planets. It
is a functional WG, which means that it exists beyond the regular
three-year lifespan of IAU WGs.
News
The six most recent news items are listed below. The complete archive of news items is
here.
November 4: WGSBN Bulletin 4, #15 Issued
WGSBN Bulletin 4, #15 has been
issued, containing new names for 45 minor planets.
October 14: WGSBN Bulletin 4, #14 Issued
WGSBN Bulletin 4, #14 has been
issued, containing 12 new names of minor planets and one new name for a minor-planet satellite.
September 23: WGSBN Bulletin 4, #13 Issued
WGSBN Bulletin 4, #13 has been
issued, containing 26 new names of minor planets.
September 2: WGSBN Bulletin 4, #12 Issued
WGSBN Bulletin 4, #12 has been
issued, containing 11 new names of minor planets.
August 15: WGSBN Bulletin 4, #11 Issued
WGSBN Bulletin 4, #11 has been
issued, containing 46 new names of minor planets.
August 9: Reboot of WGSBN Server II
The WGSBN server was rebooted today at 16:00 UTC to install patches. The server was back up in under two minutes.
Sign Up For New Bulletin Alerts
Enter an e-mail address to receive notifications of the availability of new
issues of the WGSBN Bulletin.
You will receive a message at the offered e-mail address containing a link
that you must click in order to activate or cancel your subscription.
WGSBN Bulletins
Current and past issues of the
WGSBN Bulletin are available below,
as well as
on the IAU website (note that the dates displayed on the IAU page are the dates they were posted there, not [necessarily] when they were published).
The latest issue is here and links
to older issues are here.
For convenience, links to the issues from the most recent volume are listed below:
2024
- Volume 4, #15 (2024 Nov 4)
- Volume 4, #14 (2024 Oct 14)
- Volume 4, #13 (2024 Sep 23)
- Volume 4, #12 (2024 Sep 2)
- Volume 4, #11 (2024 Aug 14)
- Volume 4, #10 (2024 Jul 14)
- Volume 4, #9 (2024 Jul 1)
- Volume 4, #8 (2024 Jun 10)
- Volume 4, #7 (2024 May 20)
- Volume 4, #6 (2024 Apr 29)
- Volume 4, #5 (2024 Sep 6)
- Volume 4, #4 (2024 Mar 18)
- Volume 4, #3 (2024 Feb 26)
- Volume 4, #2 (2024 Feb 5)
- Volume 4, #1 (2024 Jan 15)
Data Files
Links to JSON files associated with each
WGSBN Bulletin are available below.
The latest set of files are here (UTF-8 only) or here (UTF-8 + HTML), and links
to older files are here.
For convenience, links to the files from the most recent volume are listed below:
2024
- Volume 4, #15 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Nov 4)
- Volume 4, #14 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Oct 14)
- Volume 4, #13 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Sep 23)
- Volume 4, #12 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Sep 2)
- Volume 4, #11 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Aug 15)
- Volume 4, #10 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Jul 15)
- Volume 4, #9 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Jul 1)
- Volume 4, #8 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Jun 13)
- Volume 4, #7 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 May 20)
- Volume 4, #6 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Apr 29)
- Volume 4, #5 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Apr 9)
- Volume 4, #4 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Mar 18)
- Volume 4, #3 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Feb 26)
- Volume 4, #2 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Feb 5)
- Volume 4, #1 UTF-8 only UTF-8 + HTML (2024 Jan 15)
Corrigenda Files
Links to JSON files associated with corrigenda for the errata listed in the
WGSBN Bulletin are available below.
The latest file is here and links
to older files are here.
For convenience, links to the most recent corrigenda files are listed below:
2024
- Volume 4, #15 (2024 Nov 4)
- Volume 4, #14 (2024 Oct 14)
- Volume 4, #13 (2024 Sep 23)
- Volume 4, #12 (2024 Sep 2)
- Volume 4, #11 (2024 Aug 15)
- Volume 4, #10 (2024 Jul 15)
- Volume 4, #9 (2024 Jul 1)
- Volume 4, #8 (2024 Jun 10)
- Volume 4, #7 (2024 May 20)
- Volume 4, #6 (2024 Apr 29)
- Volume 4, #5 (2024 Apr 9)
- Volume 4, #4 (2024 Mar 18)
- Volume 4, #3 (2024 Feb 26)
- Volume 4, #1 (2024 Jan 15)
Documentation
Information on the format and information content of the data files on the WG's website
is available.
This page also contains links to various WG documents involving nomenclature issues.
Problem E-Mail Addresses
Information on problem e-mails in the list of addresses used for notification of new issues
is available.
Printed WGSBN Bulletin Yearbooks
Printed yearbooks of the
WGSBN Bulletin are published by
WGSBN Publishing, a specialist scientific publisher.