The CBAT collects and distributes information on comets, natural satellites, novae, meteors, and other transient astronomical events.
The CBAT has historically established priority of discovery (who gets credit for it) and announced initial designations and names of new objects.
The CBAT is a non-profit organization, but charges for its IAU Circulars and electronic telegrams to finance its continued operation.
In 1922, the IAU made the Central Bureau its official Bureau Central des Télégrammes Astronomiques (French for Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams), and it remained in Copenhagen until 1965, when it moved to the Harvard College Observatory, to be operated there by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory on the Harvard University campus.
In 2010, the CBAT moved from SAO to the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.