Name origin: Slavic goddess of the wilderness, forests and the hunt. The name was chosen in 2018 to mark the discovery taking place during the Polish Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment of Warsaw University, which was led by co-discoverer Andrzej Udalski.
Focus On: (471143) Dziewanna Read Post »
Typhon was a storm-giant, so huge that his head was said to brush the stars, who laid siege to the realm of the gods but was defeated by Zeus. He is said to be the cause of volcanic eruptions and of devastating storms. His name is considered to be a possible etymology for the word “typhoon”. Ekhidna was his consort, a she-dragon who birthed a number of the Titans.
Focus On: (42355) Typhon Read Post »
Name origin: Important Egyptian underworld god, husband of Isis. Osiris was originally a local deity from Lower Egypt who may have been a personification of fertility in the chthonic realms. He evolved to represent both fertility and death/resurrection.
Focus On: (1923) Osiris Read Post »
Name origin: Ancient Greek goddess of the underworld. Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the initiated a happy afterlife.
Focus On: (399) Persephone Read Post »
Name origin: Greek sea-monster, daughter of Pontos and Gaia. Kharybdis presided over a whirlpool guarding the Strait of Messina and was likely the cause of the tides with her thrice-daily intake and expulsion of large amounts of water.
Focus On: (388) Charybdis Read Post »
Name origin: Pacific Ocean, the largest on the planet, which covers approximately 46% of Earth’s water surface and about 32% of its total surface, more than its entire land area. Mean depth is 4km; the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench reaches 10.9km. The ocean straddles the International Date Line.
Focus On: (224) Oceana Read Post »
Name origin: Greek; food of the gods. The word ambrosia means immortality, and is often said to have either that effect or longevity on whoever consumes it. The term may not originally have been distinguished from nectar, the other food of the gods.
Focus On: (193) Ambrosia Read Post »
Name origin: Greek sea goddess and wife of Poseidon. He courted her in the form of a dolphin (or, in some tellings, sent a dolphin as messenger).
Focus On: (29) Amphitrite Read Post »
