The Minor Planet Circulars (MPCs) is a scientific journal that is generally published on the date of each full moon by the Minor Planet Center. The Circulars contain astrometric observations, orbits and ephemerides of minor planets, comets and certain natural satellites. The astrometric observations of comets are published in full, while the minor planet observations are summarised by observatory code (the full observations now being given in the Minor Planet Circulars Supplement). New numberings and namings of minor planets, as well as numberings of periodic comets, are announced in the Circulars. New orbits for comets and natural satellites appear in the Circulars; new orbits for minor planets appear in the Minor Planets and Comets Orbit Supplement.
Famous quotes containing the words minor, planet and/or circular:
“Great causes are never tried on their merits; but the cause is reduced to particulars to suit the size of the partizans, and the contention is ever hottest on minor matters.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“‘A thing is called by a certain name because it instantiates a certain universal’ is obviously circular when particularized, but it looks imposing when left in this general form. And it looks imposing in this general form largely because of the inveterate philosophical habit of treating the shadows cast by words and sentences as if they were separately identifiable. Universals, like facts and propositions, are such shadows.”
—David Pears (b. 1921)