Named in honor of Michel André Combes (b. 1939), French planetary scientist and president of the Paris Observatory from 1992 to 1998. Combes studied planetary atmospheres using infrared observations carried out both from the ground and from space. He has been particularly active in designing and building new-technology instruments for spacecraft (for example, an infrared spectrometer for the Vega mission to comet 1P/Halley) and for the largest ground-based telescopes (such as the adaptive optics device Come-on). Combes has played an important role in developing planetary science in France, particularly by encouraging his younger colleagues to join international efforts in planetary space exploration. Name suggested and citation prepared by M. Fulchignoni.