Minor Planet Center

The Minor Planet Center is a place where people keep track of small objects flying around in space, kind of like how you keep track of your toys in your toy bin. These small objects are called minor planets or asteroids. Scientists use special telescopes and computers to see where the asteroids are and figure out how they are moving.

The Minor Planet Center keeps a big list of all the minor planets they have found so far, and they give them special names and numbers so they can talk about them easily. Sometimes, scientists even discover new asteroids that they didn't know about before! The Minor Planet Center is very important because it helps scientists learn more about space and what's out there.