This is a list of notable minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of over 800,000 numbered minor planets are credited to 2,186 astronomers, observatories, telescopes or surveys.
Discovering astronomers The table consist of the following fields: Astronomers: links to the corresponding article about the discovering astronomer on Wikipedia. Discoveries: displays the total number of discovered and co-discovered minor planets made by the discoverer (numbered bodies only). It links to the corresponding "Discovery by..." category, which are subcategories of :Category:Discoveries by astronomer. These categories do not contain discoveries for which no page on Wikipedia exists. Astronomers with only a few discoveries sometimes do not have their own discovery-category (redlinks). For those who have discovered only one single minor planet, the link in the discovery column directly points to the corresponding entry in the list of minor planets. DOB–DOD: displays the astronomer's date of birth and, if applicable, death. Name(s) at MPC: displays the name of the discoverer as used by the MPC, where the abbreviated first name is written before the family name. Some discoverers have multiple names due to inconsistencies and typos. The first name listed is used in all lists of minor planets. Asteroid(s): minor-planet discoverers are often honored with the naming of (one or several) asteroids by their colleagues. This column gives links to those asteroids.