Just because of a handful of Earth-Crossers, asteroids have incurred an undeserved reputation for trouble-making. In fact, of the more than 11,000 known minor elements, as astronomers prefer to call them, most of them stick to several main orbital routes and have no interest whatever in spoiling your life.

As it's discovered and verified, each element is assigned a number indicating its order of discovery in The Ephemerides of Minor Planets, published yearly. The discoverer can then name the asteroid pretty much what he/she likes as long as it's not rude or embarrassing.

At first asteroids were named for mythological characters, and then gradually after wives, girlfriends, other scientists, famous dead people, geographical locations on Earth, cats, birds, and occasionally concepts. At this time, over 7,000 elements have proper names, and there is quite a fad on for birds.

Evil Earth-Crossers

The orbit of an Earth-crosser may in fact intersect orbits of all the inner planets. This means that at any time their orbit is liable to perturbation by the gravity of frightened planets. Perturbation means change. So far, the Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Observatory is keeping on top of these changes, but a few odd bodies, such as Toro, Icarus and Apollo, bear close watching.

Missing Asteroids

Sometimes asteroids go missing. The most famous case is that of Hermes (the Magician), which disappeared before anyone could even slap a number on the chassis. The following minor elements are missing and unaccounted for:

DESIGNER ASTEROIDS: Is there one with your name on it?

Astrologers have recently begun salting horoscopes with personal name asteroids, with most interesting results. To find out more about asteroids and to belatedly realize that I haven't made any of this up, try the following link:

And if you're curious as to whether there exists an asteroid named after you or someone significant in your life, contact Asteroid Lil at her home page, here at the guide.