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The Minor Planet Center is at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and operates on behalf of the International Astronomical Union. Brian Marsden has directed the MPC since 1978. From 1968 to 2000 he also directed the MPC’s sister organisation, the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. These jobs entail checking and logging observations of asteroids, novae, supernovae and comets, and naming any new discoveries. Marsden first began making orbital calculations as an amateur when living in Cambridge, UK, but turned professional after taking a PhD on Jupiter’s moons at Yale University. He has successfully predicted the return…