# Meanings of minor-planet names: 162001–163000

As minor planet discoveries are confirmed, they are given a permanent number by the IAU's Minor Planet Center (MPC), and the discoverers can then submit names for them, following the IAU's naming conventions. The list below concerns those minor planets in the specified number-range that have received names, and explains the meanings of those names.
Official naming citations of newly named small Solar System bodies are approved and published in a bulletin by IAU's Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN). Before May 2021, citations were published in MPC's Minor Planet Circulars for many decades. Recent citations can also be found on the JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB). Until his death in 2016, German astronomer Lutz D. Schmadel compiled these citations into the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (DMP) and regularly updated the collection.
Based on Paul Herget's The Names of the Minor Planets, Schmadel also researched the unclear origin of numerous asteroids, most of which had been named prior to World War II. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: SBDB New namings may only be added to this list below after official publication as the preannouncement of names is condemned. The WGSBN publishes a comprehensive guideline for the naming rules of non-cometary small Solar System bodies.

## Index100K200K300K400K500K600K

* 157,000s
* 158,000s
* 159,000s
* 160,000s
* 161,000s
* 162,000s
* 163,000s
* 164,000s
* 165,000s
* 166,000s
* 167,000s
* 162,001…
* 162,101…
* 162,201…
* 162,301…
* 162,401…
* 162,501…
* 162,601…
* 162,701…
* 162,801…
* 162,901…

## 162001–162100

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| 162001 Vulpius | 1990 TH$_9$ | Melchior Vulpius (c. 1570–1615), a German singer and composer of church music | JPL · 162001 |
| 162002 Spalatin | 1990 TC$_{10}$ | George Spalatin (1484–1545) was a German theologian, humanist and historian. In 1502 he went to the University of Wittenberg and had good relations with Martin Luther and to the Reformation. Spalatin was painted by Lukas Cranach, father and son. He died at Altenburg and was buried in the St. Batholomew church. | JPL · 162002 |
| 162011 Konnohmaru | 1994 AB$_1$ | Konnohmaru is a legendary warrior of the Heiji Rebellion (1159) | JPL · 162011 |
| 162035 Jirotakahashi | 1995 YW$_1$ | Jiro Takahashi (born 1949), professor of science education at Ehime University | JPL · 162035 |
| 162059 Mészáros | 1997 AM$_{17}$ | Attila Mészáros (1951–2022) was a Czech astronomer of Hungarian origin. He was a member of the Astronomical Institute of Charles University in Prague from 1984. Mészáros dealt with cosmology, the large-scale structure of the universe and γ-ray bursts. | IAU · 162059 |

## 162101–162200

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| 162158 Merrillhess | 1999 CZ$_9$ | Merrill Hess (born 1955), an amateur astronomer and has been president and vice-president of the Baton Rouge Astronomical Society many times. | JPL · 162158 |
| 162166 Mantsch | 1999 FW$_{82}$ | Paul Mantsch (born 1941), American particle and astro-particle physicist with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey | JPL · 162166 |
| 162173 Ryugu | 1999 JU$_3$ | Ryūgū-jō (Ryugu), the undersea palace of the dragon deity Ryūjin in Japanese mythology, from where a Japanese fisherman brought back a box with a secret. The naming alludes to the Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return mission. | JPL · 162173 |

## 162201–162300

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| There are no named minor planets in this number range ||||

## 162301–162400

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| 162395 Michaelbird | 2000 CY$_{108}$ | Michael K. Bird (b. 1944), a German planetary scientist. | IAU · 162395 |

## 162401–162500

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| 162466 Margon | 2000 JA$_{90}$ | Bruce Margon (born 1948), American astronomer and a contributor to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey | JPL · 162466 |

## 162501–162600

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| There are no named minor planets in this number range ||||

## 162601–162700

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| There are no named minor planets in this number range ||||

## 162701–162800

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| 162755 Spacesora | 2000 WA$_{68}$ | "Space Sora", the non-profit organization who has contributed to the popularization of science, especially astronomy, among children in Ehime prefecture, Japan, since 2008 | JPL · 162755 |

## 162801–162900

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| There are no named minor planets in this number range ||||

## 162901–163000

| Named minor planet | Provisional | This minor planet was named for... | Ref · Catalog |
| 162937 Prêtre | 2001 PQ$_9$ | René Prêtre (born 1957), a Swiss heart surgeon who treats children in both Switzerland and Mozambique. He was voted Swiss of the Year in 2009. | JPL · 162937 |
| 162978 Helenhart | 2001 QD$_{333}$ | Helen M. Hart (born 1954), a mission operations analyst at the Applied Physics Laboratory, worked as a Mission Sequencer for the New Horizons mission to Pluto. | JPL · 162978 |