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AsteriaStar

Organization

Minor Planet Center

The International Astronomical Union's clearinghouse for the astrometry, orbits, and designations of small Solar-System bodies — and of interstellar objects, to which it assigns the special "I" (interstellar) designations such as 1I, 2I, and 3I. It is operated under the auspices of the IAU.

Type
Organization
Domain
Scientific connections
Connections
9

Experience system V6

Organization scientific profile

A graph-grounded scientific layout that adapts to available evidence, imagery, relations, and source coverage.

Evidence graphScientific mapOriginal SVGSource trail
  1. 01

    Observe

    The page falls back to graph and source evidence when no cleared image is available.

  2. 02

    Measure

    Measurement panels use graph coverage, catalog identifiers, and source availability without inventing values.

  3. 03

    Locate

    Catalogues 1I/ʻOumuamua.

  4. 04

    Connect

    9 graph relations shape the knowledge viewport.

Object type
Organization
Graph relations
9
Verified sources
2
Image records
0
Domain
Scientific connections
Status
Graph entity

Scientific map

Atlas context

Minor Planet Centercoordinate fields shown only when available
  • Catalogues

    1I/ʻOumuamua

  • Catalogues

    2I/Borisov

  • Catalogues

    3I/ATLAS

  • Catalogues

    C/1980 E1 (Bowell)

Original SVG diagram

Scientific schematic

Optical pathCollected lightFocal plane / instrumentOrganization
Object class
Organization
Catalog numbers
Not recorded
Graph relations
9
Sources
2
1I/ʻOumuamua2I/Borisov3I/ATLASC/1980 E1 (Bowell)C/1999 S4 (LINEAR)C/2007 W1 (Boatti...C/2017 K2 (PANSTA...IAU Minor Planet ...Orbit Determinati...Minor Planet CenterOrganization

Visual knowledge graph

Relationships, not isolated facts

This viewport is generated from the Asteria knowledge graph. Science, culture, and interpretive links remain separated by domain so visual context never changes the evidentiary meaning of a relation.

Continue the atlas

Curated next objects

interstellar object

1I/ʻOumuamua

The first confirmed interstellar object, detected in October 2017 on its way out of the Solar System. Its strongly hyperbolic orbit (eccentricity about 1.2) showed it was never bound to the Sun. It displayed no visible coma, is highly elongated, and showed a slight non-gravitational acceleration — features that drew wide attention, though the scientific consensus is that it is a natural body.

interstellar object

2I/Borisov

The second confirmed interstellar object and the first that was unmistakably a comet, discovered in August 2019 by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov. Its eccentricity of about 3.4 made its interstellar origin certain. Unlike 1I/ʻOumuamua it showed an active dust coma and tail, letting astronomers study the chemistry of a comet formed around another star; it proved unusually rich in carbon monoxide.

interstellar object

3I/ATLAS

The third confirmed interstellar object, discovered on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS survey in Chile. Its orbit is the most strongly hyperbolic of the three found so far, with an eccentricity of roughly 6, and it showed cometary activity as it passed through the inner Solar System in late 2025. Some physical parameters remain preliminary, but its interstellar origin is established by the trajectory.

hyperbolic comet

C/1980 E1 (Bowell)

A long-period comet that a close encounter with Jupiter in 1980 flung onto a clearly hyperbolic orbit (eccentricity about 1.06). It is now leaving the Solar System, but — unlike a true interstellar object — it formed here; the hyperbolic orbit is the result of a planetary slingshot, not an origin around another star.

hyperbolic comet

C/1999 S4 (LINEAR)

A near-parabolic long-period comet from the Oort cloud, famous for disintegrating completely near perihelion in July 2000 — one of the best-observed comet break-ups. Its orbit was close to the parabolic boundary (eccentricity near 1), the hallmark of a first-time visitor from the distant Solar System, not from interstellar space.

hyperbolic comet

C/2007 W1 (Boattini)

A long-period comet discovered by Andrea Boattini through the Mount Lemmon Survey, on a near-parabolic orbit with an eccentricity extremely close to 1. Like the other long-period comets here it is a distant Solar-System visitor, not an interstellar object: its original orbit is bound and it is not being ejected from the Solar System — the tiny excess over a parabola is an epoch-dependent, perturbed value.

Data

Scientific data & provenance

Data & provenance

Stable ID
organization:minor-planet-center
Type
Organization
Domain
Scientific connections
Relationships
9
Graph version
1.0.0

Dataset membership

Open data

In the graph export: graph.json · graph.jsonld

Planned API: GET /api/v0/entities/organization:minor-planet-center

Scientific quality

Substantial
Unreviewed2 sourcesv1.0.0

3 of 4 applicable dimensions complete

Description
Complete
Source coverage
Complete
Relationship coverage
Complete
Review coverage
None
Citation coverage
Not applicable
Image coverage
Not applicable
Timeline coverage
Not applicable

Scientific entity. Dimensions that cannot apply to this object are excluded rather than counted as gaps. See the evidence framework and authority dashboard.

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Sources & references

The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.

  • IAUInternational Astronomical Union

    Official naming, definitions, constellation boundaries, and astronomical nomenclature.

  • Minor Planet CenterIAU Minor Planet Center

    Designations and orbits of asteroids, comets, and minor bodies.