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:
“If, for instance, they have heard something from the postman, they attribute it to “a semi-official statement”; if they have fallen into conversation with a stranger at a bar, they can conscientiously describe him as “a source that has hitherto proved unimpeachable.” It is only when the journalist is reporting a whim of his own, and one to which he attaches minor importance, that he defines it as the opinion of “well-informed circles.””
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“ET phone home.”
—Melissa Mathison, U.S. screenwriter, and Steven Spielberg. ET, ET The Extra-Terrestrial, realizing he can contact his home planet (1982)
“The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.... I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)