What are the special #'s and letters for when naming interstellar objects?

Subject: What are the special #'s and letters for when naming interstellar objects?

Date: Wed Jan 13 20:09:23 1999
Posted by Brandon Mason
Grade level: 10-12
School: Junction City High School
City: Junction City State/Province: OR
Country: USA
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 916279763.As

Message:


When reading about stars or galaxies I usually see something like 
GX423+46 (I made that up). Are different objects assigned 
different letters like GX for galaxies or ST for stars? What's 
the #'s for? Is there some way I can decipher what they actually 
mean? Or are they just given random letters/#'s?

Is there a place on the internet where I can enter in an existing 
space object's name and it will bring up information on that 
object?

Re: What are the special #'s and letters for when naming interstellar objects?

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