Editing Asteroid (section)

== Naming ==
{{Main|Minor planet#Naming}}
[[File:Asteroid20130318-full.jpg|thumb|right|[[2013 EC]], shown here in radar images, has a provisional designation]]

By 1851, the [[Royal Astronomical Society]] decided that asteroids were being discovered at such a rapid rate that a different system was needed to categorize or name asteroids. In 1852, when [[Annibale de Gasparis|de Gasparis]] discovered the twentieth asteroid, [[Benjamin Valz]] gave it a name and a number designating its rank among asteroid discoveries, [[20 Massalia]]. Sometimes asteroids were discovered and not seen again. So, starting in 1892, new asteroids were listed by the year and a capital letter indicating the order in which the asteroid's orbit was calculated and registered within that specific year. For example, the first two asteroids discovered in 1892 were labeled 1892A and 1892B. However, there were not enough letters in the alphabet for all of the asteroids discovered in 1893, so 1893Z was followed by 1893AA. A number of variations of these methods were tried, including designations that included year plus a Greek letter in 1914. A simple chronological numbering system was established in 1925.<ref name="dawn-community"/><ref>{{cite web |title=New- And Old-Style Minor Planet Designations |url=http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/info/OldDesDoc.html |website=cfa.harvard.edu |publisher=Harvard |access-date=8 April 2022 |date=22 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822195033/http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/info/OldDesDoc.html |archive-date=22 August 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Currently all newly discovered asteroids receive a [[Provisional designation in astronomy|provisional designation]] (such as {{mpl|2002 AT|4}}) consisting of the year of discovery and an alphanumeric code indicating the [[half-month]] of discovery and the sequence within that half-month. Once an asteroid's orbit has been confirmed, it is given a number, and later may also be given a name (e.g. {{nowrap|[[433 Eros]]}}). The formal naming convention uses parentheses around the number—e.g. (433)&nbsp;Eros—but dropping the parentheses is quite common. Informally, it is also common to drop the number altogether, or to drop it after the first mention when a name is repeated in running text.<ref name=OpenUNamingAstrds/> In addition, names can be proposed by the asteroid's discoverer, within guidelines established by the International Astronomical Union.<ref name=PlanSocNameGuides/>

=== Symbols ===
{{Main|Astronomical symbols}}
The first asteroids to be discovered were assigned iconic symbols like the ones traditionally used to designate the planets. By 1852 there were two dozen asteroid symbols, which often occurred in multiple variants.<ref name=Gould-1852/>

In 1851, after the fifteenth asteroid, [[15 Eunomia|Eunomia]], had been discovered, [[Johann Franz Encke]] made a major change in the upcoming 1854 edition of the ''[[Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch]]'' (BAJ, ''Berlin Astronomical Yearbook''). He introduced a disk (circle), a traditional symbol for a star, as the generic symbol for an asteroid. The circle was then numbered in order of discovery to indicate a specific asteroid. The numbered-circle convention was quickly adopted by astronomers, and the next asteroid to be discovered ([[16 Psyche]], in 1852) was the first to be designated in that way at the time of its discovery. However, Psyche was given an iconic symbol as well, as were a few other asteroids discovered over the next few years. [[20 Massalia]] was the first asteroid that was not assigned an iconic symbol, and no iconic symbols were created after the 1855 discovery of [[37 Fides]].{{efn|Except for [[Pluto]], [[99942 Apophis]] and, in the astrological community, for a few outer bodies such as [[2060 Chiron]].}}<ref name=Hilton-2011-a/>