Uranus resonance

Minor planets in estimated resonance with Uranus.

Screenshot of orbit viewer showing the position of (8405) Asbolus at the time of discovery, from JPL's Small Body Database.
Centaurs, Focus On, Libra discovery

Focus On: (8405) Asbolus

sbolos was a diviner who read omens in the flight of birds, and who predicted the battle with the Lapiths. He eventually caused the fight with Herakles (by bringing the centaurs when he saw Herakles’ wine opened), and thus was indirectly responsible for the deaths of Pholus and Chiron.

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Asteroids, Central main belt objects, Focus On, Main belt objects, Taurus discovery

Focus On: (941) Murray

Australian-British professor Gilbert Murray (1866-1957) helped Austria recover from World War I in 1920. He was an outstanding scholar of Ancient Greek literature, language and culture. Involved in the League of Nations from 1916, he was also president of the Ethical Union (now Humanists UK) in 1929 and 1930, and a founder of Oxfam.

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Othello and Desdemona (c. 1780), from William Blake's Illustrations to Shakespeare. A typical Blake painting in sepia, browns and greys. Othello (left), a young Black man dressed in armour and a cloak with uncovered head, holds Desdemona's hand and one arm surrounds her waist. He gazes at her with a loving expression. Desdemona's other hand rests across her chest, and she returns his gaze with some demureness. She is a young white woman in a simple, pale dress with a loose headdress partially covering golden hair.
Aquarius discovery, Asteroids, Central main belt objects, Focus On, Main belt objects

Focus On: (666) Desdemona

Name origin: Desdemona, character in Shakespeare’s Othello. The name may have been inspired by the asteroid’s provisional designation, containing the letters “DM”. Desdemona is the faithful wife of Othello whose reputation is muddied by the villain Iago.

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Nerthus, illustration by Emil Doepler (1905) depicting the procession of the goddess.
Asteroids, Capricorn discovery, Focus On, Main belt objects, Outer main belt objects

Focus On: (601) Nerthus

Germanic goddess associated with water and wagons. Only priests were allowed to touch the cart of Nerthus, which was kept in a sacred grove on an island. When the priest found her to be present by the cart, it was drawn on procession; everywhere it went celebrations took place.

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Archaeological site of Olympia showing the stadium, the temple of Hera and the temple of Zeus. The Alfeios valley is visible in the background.
Asteroids, Central main belt objects, Focus On, Main belt objects, Virgo discovery

Focus On: (582) Olympia

Olympia, officially Archaia Olympia, was a Panhellenic religious sanctuary in ancient Greece, where the early Olympic Games were held from the 8th century BCE to the 4th century CE, before being restored in 1894. The games were held in the name of Zeus, and drew visitors from the entire Greek world

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A 1760 copperplate engraving of Nassau Hall, the earliest known. Illustration opposite p. 104 of New American Magazine, No. XXVII (March 1760). Creator unknown. The Princeton motto, Dei Sub Numine Viget (Under God's Power She Flourishes) is depicted as a banner above the building. Below is the text: Aula Nassovica.
Asteroids, Focus On, Koronis family, Libra discovery, Main belt objects, Outer main belt objects

Focus On: (534) Nassovia

Named for Nassau Hall, the oldest building at Princeton University. In 1783, when Princeton became the U.S. provincial capital for four months, Nassau Hall served as its seat of government. Congress met in its library on the second floor. The term Old Nassau refers affectionately to the building and serves as a metonym for the university as a whole.

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