Discovery index (ConceptTopic, 3)

From Hi.gher. Space

Revision as of 23:15, 14 March 2016

The discovery index is a canonical indexing system for assigning unique identifiers to new discoveries until enough data has been collected to properly classify them. This index provides an unambiguous identifier to refer to new discoveries without needing to commit to a particular classification or naming scheme, which may not be accurate at initial discovery time since there may not yet be enough data at the time to determine how to classify and name them.

This page serves as the authoritative list of discovery index (or D-number) assignments. All new assignments should be added here first before being used anywhere else. New assignments should have been verified (preferably by multiple researchers) to be correct before being added here.

The index field should be a link to a page that describes the discovery in detail, unless it has been named, in which case its name (in the comment field) can serve as the link.

The classification field is intended to indicate the eventual classification of the discovery, and may be left blank initially.

The comment field is intended to give a brief description of what the discovery is, and should simply be its name, if one has been given. Otherwise, in lieu of its name, the broad category it is (possibly temporarily) assigned to, or, barring that, a brief description of its shape or something to differentiate it from the other entries. The comment field is not intended to be a verbose description of everything about that discovery; that should go into the discovery's own page.

The current assignments are: