ast_list.txt

# List of asteroids on SwissEph CD-ROM
# ====================================
# At the same time a brief introduction into asteroids
# ====================================================
# Dieter Koch
# updated 8 Oct 2005
#
# 
# Ephemerides of all of the asteroids mentioned below
# can be found on the SwissEph CD-ROM.
# For complete Ephemerides of ALL asteroids, order our
# special asteroid CD-ROMS.
# 
# Literature:
# Lutz D. Schmadel, Dictionary of Minor Planet Names,
#   Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York
# Charles T. Kowal, Asteroids. Their Nature and Utilization,
#   Whiley & Sons, 1996, Chichester, England
# 
# 
# What is an asteroid?
# --------------------
# 
# Asteroids are small planets. Because there are too many 
# of them and because most of them are quite small, 
# astronomers did not like to call them "planets", but 
# invented names like "asteroid" (Greek "star-like",
# because through telescopes they did not appear as planetary
# discs but as star-like points) or "planetoid" (Greek 
# "similar to a planet"). However they are also often
# called minor planets.
# The minor planets can roughly be divided into two groups.
# There are the inner asteroids, the majority of which
# circles in the space between Mars and Jupiter, and
# there are the outer asteroids, which have their realm
# beyond Neptune. The first group consists of rather 
# dense, earth-like material, whereas the Transneptunians
# mainly consist of water ice and frozen gases. Many comets
# are descendants of the "asteroids" (or should one say
# "comets"?) belt beyond Neptune. The first Transneptunian
# objects (except Pluto) were discovered only after 1992 
# and none of them has been given a name as yet.
# 
# 
# The largest main belt asteroids
# -------------------------------
# Most asteroids are actually only debris of collisions
# of small planets that formed in the beginning of the 
# solar system. Only the largest ones are still more
# or less complete and round planets.
  
1    Ceres        # 913 km  goddess of corn and harvest
2    Pallas       # 523 km  goddess of wisdom, war and liberal arts 
4    Vesta        # 501 km  goddess of the hearth fire
10   Hygiea       # 429 km  goddess of health
511  Davida       # 324 km  after an astronomer David P. Todd
704  Interamnia   # 338 km  "between rivers", ancient name of 
                  #         its discovery place Teramo 
65   Cybele       # 308 km  Phrygian Goddess, = Rhea, wife of Kronos-Saturn
52   Europa       # 292 km  beautiful mortal woman, mother of Minos by Zeus
87   Sylvia       # 282 km  
451  Patientia    # 280 km  patience
31   Euphrosyne   # 270 km  one of the three Graces, benevolence
15   Eunomia      # 260 km  one of the Hours, order and law
324  Bamberga     # 252 km  after a city in Bavaria
3    Juno         # 248 km  wife of Zeus
16   Psyche       # 248 km  "soul", name of a nymph


# Asteroid families
# -----------------
# Most asteroids live in families. There are several kinds
# of families. 
# - There are families that are separated from each other 
#   by orbital resonances with Jupiter or other major planets.
# - Other families, the so-called Hirayama families, are the 
#   relics of asteroids that broke apart long ago when they
#   collided with other asteroids. They still share similar
#   orbital qualities.
# - Third, there are the Trojan asteroids that are caught 
#   in regions 60 degrees ahead or behind a major planet 
#   (Jupiter or Mars) by the combined gravitational forces 
#   of this planet and the Sun.

# Near Earth groups:
# ------------------
#
# Aten family: they cross Earth; mean distance from Sun is less than Earth 

2062 Aten         # an Egyptian Sun god
2100 Ra-Shalom    # Ra is an Egyptian Sun god, Shalom is Hebrew "peace"
                  # was discovered during Camp David mid-east peace conference

# Apollo family: they cross Earth; mean distance is greater than Earth 

1862 Apollo       # Greek Sun god
1566 Icarus       # wanted to fly to the sky, fell into the ocean
                  # Icarus crosses Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
                  # and has his perihelion very close to the Sun
3200 Phaethon     # wanted to drive the solar chariot, crashed in flames
                  # Phaethon crosses Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
                  # and has his perihelion very close to the Sun
69230 Hermes      # Greek name of Mercury; 
		  # discovered and lost in 1937, rediscovered in 2003

# Amor family: they cross Mars, approach Earth

1221 Amor         # Roman love god
433  Eros         # Greek love god
719  Albert       # dicovered and lost in 1911 rediscovered in 2000

# Mars Trojans:
# -------------

5261 Eureka       a mars Trojan

# Main belt families:
# -------------------

# Hungarias: an asteroid group at 1.95 AU 

434  Hungaria     # after Hungary

# Floras: a Hirayama family at 2.2 AU
 
8    Flora        # goddess of flowers

# Phocaeas: an asteroid group at 2.36 AU

25   Phocaea      # maritime town in Ionia

# Koronis family: a Hirayama family at 2.88 AU

158  Koronis      # mother of Asklepios by Apollo

# Eos family: a Hirayama family at 3.02 AU

221  Eos          # goddess of dawn

# Themis family: a Hirayama family at 3.13 AU

24   Themis       # goddess of justice

# Hildas: an asteroid belt at 4.0 AU, in 3:2 resonance with Jupiter
# --------------------------------------------------------------
# The Hildas have fairly eccentric orbits and, at their
# aphelion, are very close to the orbit of Jupiter. However,
# at those times, Jupiter is ALWAYS somewhere else. As
# Jupiter approaches, the Hilda asteroids move towards
# their perihelion points.

153  Hilda        # female first name, means "heroine"

# a single asteroid at 4.26 AU, in 4:3 resonance with Jupiter
279  Thule        # mythical center of Magic in the uttermost north 

# Jupiter Trojans:
# ----------------
# Only the Trojans behind Jupiter are actually named after Trojan heroes,
# whereas the "Trojans" ahead of Jupiter are named after Greek heroes that
# participated in the Trojan war. However there have been made some mistakes,
# i.e. there are some Trojan "spies" in the Greek army and some Greek "spies"
# in the Trojan army.

# Greeks ahead of Jupiter:
624  Hector       # Trojan "spy" in the Greek army, by far the greatest 
                  # Trojan hero and the greatest Trojan asteroid
588  Achilles     # slayer of Hector
1143 Odysseus

# Trojans behind Jupiter:
1172 Äneas
3317 Paris
884  Priamus

# Jupiter-crossing asteroids:
# ---------------------------

3552 Don Quixote  # perihelion near Mars, aphelion beyond Jupiter;
                  # you know Don Quixote, don't you?
944  Hidalgo      # perihelion near Mars, aphelion near Saturn;
                  # after a Mexican national hero
5335 Damocles     # perihelion near Mars, aphelion near Uranus;
                  # the man sitting below a sword suspended by a thread

# Centaurs:
# ---------

2060 Chiron       # perihelion near Saturn, aphelion near Uranus;
                  # also a member of the comets catalogue (95P Chiron)
		  # because it has cometary activity
                  # educator of heros, specialist in healing and war arts
5145 Pholus       # perihelion near Saturn, aphelion near Neptune
                  # seer of the gods, keeper of the wine of the Centaurs
7066 Nessus       # perihelion near Saturn, aphelion in Pluto's mean distance
                  # ferryman, killed by Hercules, kills Hercules


# Neptune Trojans:
# ----------------
# none named by Feb 2004

# Plutinos:
# ---------
# These are objects with periods similar to Pluto, i.e. objects
# that resonate with the Neptune period in a 3:2 ratio.
# There are no Plutinos included in Swiss Ephemeris so far, but
# PLUTO himself can be considered a Plutino type asteroid!

28978 Ixion       # 1060 km diameter
90482 Orcus       # 1700 km, largest Plutino by Oct 2005 (besides Pluto himself)

# Cubewanos:
# ----------
# These are non-Plutino objects with periods greater than Pluto.
# The word "Cubewano" is derived from the preliminary designation
# of the first-discovered Cubewano: 1992 QB1
# to be named after creation deities 

15760 1992 QB1    # first-discovered Cubewano, 280 km diameter
20000 Varuna      # 980 km
50000 Quaoar      # largest Cubewano by Feb 2004: 1250 km

# Scattered-Disk Objects:
# ----------------------
# Highly eccentric trans-Neptunian orbits
90377 Sedna       # perihelion 76 = AU, aphelion = 913 AU, period = 11000 years
                  # diameter = 1700 km

# strange bodies
# --------------------
20461 Dioretsa	  # a retrograde asteroid at Period = 115 years (a=23.757)
                  # perihelion = 2.4 AU aphelion = 45 AU, incl = 160
		  # this is a rather comet-like orbit


# Asteroids that challenge hypothetical planets astrology
# -------------------------------------------------------

42   Isis         # not identical with "Isis-Transpluto"
                  # Egyptian lunar goddess
763  Cupido       # different from Witte's Cupido
                  # Roman god of sexual desire
4341 Poseidon     # not identical with Witte's Poseidon
                  # Greek name of Neptune
4464 Vulcano      # compare Witte's Vulkanus 
                  # and intramercurian hypothetical Vulcanus
                  # Roman fire god
5731 Zeus         # different from Witte's Zeus
                  # Greek name of Jupiter
1862 Apollo       # different from Witte's Apollon
                  # Greek god of the Sun
398  Admete       # compare Witte's Admetos
                  # "the untamed one", daughter of Eurystheus

# Asteroids that challenge Dark Moon/Lilith astrology
# --------------------------------------------

1181 Lilith       # not identical with Dark Moon 'Lilith'
                  # first evil wife of Adam
3753 Cruithne     # also called a "second moon" of earth;
                  # actually not a moon, but an asteroid that 
                  # orbits around the sun in a certain resonance 
                  # with the earth.
                  # After the first Celtic group to come to the British Isles.

# Also try the two points 60 degrees in front of and behind the
# Moon, the so called Lagrange points, where the combined
# gravitational forces of the earth and the moon might imprison
# rocks and stones. There have been some photographic hints
# that there are clouds of such material around these points.
# They are called the Kordylewski clouds.


# other asteroids
# ---------------

5    Astraea      # a goddess of justice
6    Hebe         # goddess of youth
7    Iris         # rainbow goddess, messenger of the gods
8    Flora        # goddess of flowers and gardens
9    Metis        # goddess of prudence
10   Hygiea       # goddess of health
14   Irene        # goddess of peace
16   Psyche       # "soul", a nymph
19   Fortuna      # goddess of fortune

# Some frequent names:
# --------------------
# There are thousands of female first names in the asteroids list.
# Very interesting for relationship charts!

78   Diana
170  Maria
234  Barbara
375  Ursula       
412  Elisabetha
542  Susanna

# Wisdom asteroids:
# -----------------

134  Sophrosyne   # equanimity, healthy mind and impartiality
197  Arete        # virtue
227  Philosophia
251  Sophia       # wisdom (Greek)
259  Aletheia     # truth 
275  Sapientia    # wisdom (Latin)
423  Diotima	  # priestess, teacher of Socrates
5450 Sokrates
5451 Plato
6616 Plotinos
6617 Boethius
6001 Thales
6039 Parmenides
6123 Aristoteles
6143 Pythagoras
6152 Empedocles
3279 Solon
5149 Leibniz
7083 Kant
7014 Nietzsche
7015 Schopenhauer

# Love asteroids:
# ---------------

344  Desiderata
433  Eros
499  Venusia
763  Cupido 
1221 Amor               
1387 Kama         # Indian god of sexual desire           
1388 Aphrodite    # Greek love Goddess
 966 Muschi       

# The Nine Muses
# --------------

18   Melpomene    Muse of tragedy
22   Kalliope     Muse of heroic poetry
23   Thalia       Muse of comedy
27   Euterpe      Muse of music and lyric poetry
30   Urania       Muse of astronomy and astrology
33   Polyhymnia   Muse of singing and rhetoric
62   Erato        Muse of song and dance
81   Terpsichore  Muse of choral dance and song
84   Klio         Muse of history

# Money and big busyness asteroids
# --------------------------------

19   Fortuna      # goddess of fortune
904  Rockefellia
1338 Duponta 
3652 Soros 

# Beatles asteroids:
# ------------------

4147 Lennon
4148 McCartney
4149 Harrison
4150 Starr

# Composer Asteroids:
# -------------------

2055 Dvorak
1814 Bach
1815 Beethoven
1034 Mozartia
3941 Haydn
And there are many more...

# Astrodienst asteroids:
# ----------------------

# programmers group:
3045 Alois
10847 Koch
2968 Iliya        # Alois' dog

# artists group:
412  Elisabetha

# production family:
2569 Madeline
517 Edith
1716 Peter

# children group
105 Artemis
1181 Lilith

# special interest group
564 Dudu
349 Dembowska
484 Pittsburghia

# By the year 1997, the statistics of asteroid names looked as follows:

# Men (mostly family names)           2551
# Astronomers                         1147
# Women (mostly first names)           684
# Mythological terms                   542
# Cities, harbours buildings           497
# Scientists (no astronomers)          493
# Relatives of asteroid discoverers    277
# Writers                              249
# Countries, provinces, islands        246
# Amateur astronomers                  209
# Historical, political figures        176
# Composers, musicians, dancers        157
# Figures from literature, operas      145
# Rivers, seas, mountains              135
# Institutes, observatories            116
# Painters, sculptors                  101
# Plants, trees, animals                63