List: Asteroids named from Greek mythology

by likeorhate

•  433 Eros

  433 Eros is the first discovered Near-Earth asteroid, named after the Greek god of love, Eros. It is an S-type asteroid approximately 34.4×11.2×11.2 km in size, the second-largest near-Earth asteroid (NEA) after 1036 Ganymed, belonging to the Amors. It is a Mars-crosser asteroid and was the first asteroid that was known to come within the orbit of Mars. Eros is one of the few NEAs with a maximum diameter greater than 10 km.

  

  16.7%
  

  33.3%
  

  50.0%
  
•  52 Europa

  52 Europa is one of the larger asteroids. It has a diameter of 300 km, and was discovered on February 4, 1858 by H. Goldschmidt. It is named after Europa, one of Zeus's conquests in Greek mythology. Europa is approximately the seventh largest asteroid by volume, though it has a low density (is highly porous), presumably through having suffered a particularly severe collision. It is a very dark carbonaceous C-type, and the fourth-largest of these.

  

  22.2%
  

  30.6%
  

  47.2%
  
•  4769 Castalia

  The asteroid 4769 Castalia (ka-stay'-lee-ə; previously known by the provisional designation 1989 PB) was the first asteroid to be modeled by radar imaging. It is an Apollo, Mars- and Venus-crosser asteroid. It was discovered on August 9, 1989 by Eleanor F. Helin on photographic plates taken at Palomar Observatory. It is named after Castalia, a nymph in Greek mythology.

  

  60.0%
  

  20.0%
  

  20.0%
  
•  16 Psyche

  16 Psyche is one of the ten most massive main belt asteroids. It is over 200 kilometers in diameter and contains a little less than 1% of the mass of the entire main asteroid belt. It is the most massive of the metallic M-type asteroids. Psyche was discovered by Annibale de Gasparis on March 17, 1852 from Naples and named after the Greek mythological figure Psyche. The first fifteen asteroids to be discovered were given symbols by astronomers as a type of short-hand notation.

  

  32.4%
  

  27.0%
  

  40.5%
  
•  2 Pallas

  2 Pallas is the second asteroid to have been discovered, by astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers on March 28, 1802. Pallas was at first considered a planet, as were the other early asteroids 1 Ceres, 3 Juno, and 4 Vesta, until the discovery of many additional asteroids led to their re-classification. It appears to be the largest irregularly shaped body in the Solar System, not completely rounded under its own gravity.

  

  46.7%
  

  33.3%
  

  20.0%
  
•  243 Ida

  243 Ida is an asteroid in the Koronis family of the main belt. It was discovered on 29 September 1884 by Johann Palisa and named after a nymph from Greek mythology. Later telescopic observations categorized Ida as an S-type asteroid, the most numerous type in the inner asteroid belt. On 28 August 1993, Ida was visited by the spacecraft Galileo, bound for Jupiter. It was the second asteroid to be visited by a spacecraft and the first found to possess a satellite.

  

  33.3%
  

  27.8%
  

  38.9%
  
•  588 Achilles

  588 Achilles is an asteroid discovered on February 22, 1906 by the German astronomer Max Wolf. It was the first of the Trojan asteroids to be discovered, and is named after Achilles, the fictional hero from the Iliad. It orbits in the L4 Lagrangian point of the Sun-Jupiter system.

  

  42.1%
  

  36.8%
  

  21.1%
  
•  65 Cybele

  65 Cybele (or as in Greek Κυβέλη) is one of the largest asteroids in the main belt. It gives its name to the Cybele asteroids which orbit outward from the Sun from the 2:1 orbital resonance with Jupiter. As a C-type asteroid it is dark in color and carbonaceous in composition. It was discovered on March 8, 1861 by Ernst Tempel and named after Cybele the earth goddess. The first Cybelian stellar occultation was observed on October 17, 1979 in the Soviet Union.

  

  35.5%
  

  38.7%
  

  25.8%
  
•  24 Themis

  24 Themis is one of the largest Main belt asteroids. It is also the largest member of the Themis asteroid family. It was discovered by Annibale de Gasparis on April 5, 1853. It is named after Themis, the personification of natural law and divine order in Greek mythology. On October 7, 2009, the presence of water ice was confirmed on the surface of this asteroid using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility. The surface of the asteroid appears completely covered in ice.

  

  42.1%
  

  42.1%
  

  15.8%
  
•  624 Hektor

  624 Hektor is the largest of the Jovian Trojan asteroids. It was discovered in 1907 by August Kopff. Hektor is a D-type asteroid, dark and reddish in colour. It lies in Jupiter's leading Lagrangian point, L4, called the 'Greek' node after one of the two sides in the legendary Trojan War. Hektor is named after the Trojan hero Hektor and is thus one of two Trojan asteroids that is "misplaced" in the wrong camp.

  

  27.3%
  

  36.4%
  

  36.4%
  
•  5 Astraea

  5 Astraea is a large main belt asteroid. Its surface is highly reflective (bright) and its composition is probably a mixture of nickel-iron with magnesium- and iron-silicates. The adjectival form of the name, although unused, would be Astraean (which also designates a genus of star corals). Astraea was the fifth asteroid discovered, on December 8, 1845 by K. L. Hencke. It was his first of two asteroid discoveries. The second was 6 Hebe.

  

  33.3%
  

  24.2%
  

  42.4%
  
•  1862 Apollo

  1862 Apollo is a Q-type asteroid, discovered by Karl Reinmuth in 1932, but lost and not recovered until 1973. It is named after the Greek god Apollo. It is the namesake of the Apollo asteroids, and the first one discovered, although because it was lost for a time its asteroid number (1862) is higher than that of some other Apollo asteroids such as 1566 Icarus. Analysis of the spin of this object provided observational evidence of the YORP effect.

  

  0.0%
  

  0.0%
  

  0.0%
  
•  6 Hebe

  6 Hebe is a large Main belt asteroid, containing around half a percent of the mass of the belt. Its apparently high bulk density (greater than that of the Earth's Moon or even Mars), however, means that by volume it does not rank among the top twenty asteroids. This high bulk density suggests an extremely solid body that has not been impacted by collisions, which is not typical of asteroids of its size - they tend to be loosely bound rubble piles.

  

  0.0%
  

  0.0%
  

  100.0%
  
•  90 Antiope

  90 Antiope is an asteroid discovered on October 1, 1866 by Robert Luther. The 90th asteroid to be discovered, it is named after Antiope from Greek mythology, though it is disputed as to whether this is Antiope the Amazon or Antiope the mother of Amphion and Zethus. Antiope orbits in the outer third of the core region of the main belt, and is a member of the Themis family of asteroids. Like most bodies in this region, it is of the dark C spectral type, indicating a carbonaceous composition.

  

  0.0%
  

  75.0%
  

  25.0%
  
•  1566 Icarus

  1566 Icarus is an Apollo asteroid (a sub-class of near-Earth asteroid) whose unusual characteristic is that at perihelion it is closer to the Sun than Mercury; it is said to be a Mercury-crosser asteroid. It is also a Venus and Mars-crosser. It is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun. It was discovered in 1949 by Walter Baade. Icarus makes a close approach to Earth at gaps of 9, 19, or 38 years.

  

  100.0%
  

  0.0%
  

  0.0%
  
•  1036 Ganymed

  1036 Ganymed is the largest Amor asteroid, at about 32 km in diameter. It was discovered by Walter Baade on October 23, 1924 and is named after Ganymede, the Trojan prince turned god whom Zeus designated the cupbearer to the Greek gods. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is also named after that individual. It is also a Mars-crosser asteroid.

  

  0.0%
  

  16.7%
  

  83.3%
  
•  3908 Nyx

  3908 Nyx is an Amor and Mars-crosser asteroid. It was discovered by Hans-Emil Schuster on August 6, 1980 and is named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night, after which Pluto's moon Nix is also named. It is 1–2 km in diameter and is a V-type asteroid, meaning that it may be a fragment of the asteroid 4 Vesta.

  

  16.7%
  

  16.7%
  

  66.7%
  
•  4660 Nereus

  4660 Nereus (nirr'-ee-əs; Greek Νηρέας) is a small (about 0.3 kilometres or ~1000 feet diameter) asteroid. It was discovered by Eleanor F. Helin on February 28, 1982, approximately 1 month after a near pass by the Earth. It is named after Nereus, a Titan in Greek mythology. Nereus is potentially a very important asteroid. It is an Apollo and Mars-crosser asteroid, with an orbit that frequently comes very close to Earth, and because of this it is exceptionally accessible to spacecraft.

  

  0.0%
  

  50.0%
  

  50.0%
  
•  69230 Hermes

  69230 Hermes is an Apollo, Mars- and Venus-crosser asteroid that passed Earth at about twice the distance of the Moon on October 30, 1937. It is named after the Greek god Hermes. At the time, this was the closest known approach of an asteroid to the Earth. Not until 1989 was a closer approach observed. At closest approach, Hermes was moving 5° per hour across the sky and reached 8th magnitude. It was discovered by Karl Reinmuth in images taken on October 28, 1937.

  

  0.0%
  

  0.0%
  

  100.0%
  
•  3200 Phaethon

  3200 Phaethon is an Apollo asteroid and an extinct comet. Simon F. Green and John K. Davies, while searching Infrared Astronomical Satellite data for moving objects, discovered 3200 Phaethon (1983 TB) in images from October 11, 1983. It was announced on October 14 in IAUC 3878 along with optical confirmation by Charles T. Kowal, who reported it to be asteroidal in appearance. It was the first asteroid to be discovered by a spacecraft. It measures 5.10 km in diameter.

  

  100.0%
  

  0.0%
  

  0.0%
  
•  1981 Midas

  The asteroid 1981 Midas was discovered on March 6, 1973 by Charles T. Kowal at Palomar Observatory. It is named after Midas, the king of Phrygia in Greek mythology who turned objects to gold when he touched them. Midas is an Apollo asteroid, a Venus and Mars-crosser asteroid with an orbital period of 2 years, 134 days. Its last close approach to Earth was in March 1992, passing at 19.9 Gm.

  

  100.0%
  

  0.0%
  

  0.0%
  
•  7 Iris

  7 Iris is a large main belt asteroid. Among the S-type asteroids, it ranks fifth in geometric mean diameter after Eunomia, Juno, Amphitrite and Herculina. Its bright surface and small distance from the Sun make Iris the fourth brightest object in the asteroid belt after Vesta, Ceres, and Pallas. But at typical oppositions it marginally outshines the larger though darker Pallas.

  

  60.0%
  

  0.0%
  

  40.0%
  
•  288 Glauke

  288 Glauke is an asteroid discovered by Robert Luther in 1890. It was the last of his asteroid discoveries. It is named after Glauke, a daughter of Creon in Greek mythology. Glauke has an exceptionally slow rotation period of about 1200 hours (50 days). This makes it the slowest-rotating non-planetary object known in the solar system. The rotation is believed to be "tumbling", similar to 4179 Toutatis.

  

  0.0%
  

  100.0%
  

  0.0%
  
•  1810 Epimetheus

  1810 Epimetheus is an asteroid that was discovered on September 24, 1960 by Cornelis Johannes Van Houten, Ingrid Van Houten-Groeneveld, and Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory near Pauma Valley, California. It was named after Epimetheus the Titan in Greek mythology. One of Saturn's satellites is also named Epimetheus. Orbital revolution: 3 years, 115 days

  

  0.0%
  

  100.0%
  

  0.0%
  
•  9 Metis

  9 Metis is one of the larger main belt asteroids. It is composed of silicates and metallic nickel-iron, and may be the core remnant of a large asteroid that was destroyed by an ancient collision. Metis is estimated to contain just under half a percent of the total mass of the asteroid belt.

  

  0.0%
  

  100.0%
  

  0.0%