10 Hygiea
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10 Hygiea is a large asteroid in the outer region of the main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was the tenth known asteroid, discovered on 12 April 1849 by Italian astronomer
Hygiea's southern hemisphere imaged by the Very Large Telescope in July 2017
The Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, where Hygiea was discovered
This graphic used in the IAU 2006 draft proposal listed Hygiea as a potential planet.
Diagram of Hygiea's orbit (white), with the inner planets' and Jupiter's orbits labelled
2 Pallas
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Pallas is the third-largest asteroid in the Solar System by volume and mass. It is the second asteroid to have been discovered, after Ceres, and is likely a remnant protoplanet. Like Ceres, it is beli
10 Hygiea
…caduceus has long been mistaken for the rod of Asclepius (see caduceus as a symbol of medicine). While the first four asteroids discovered—Ceres (1801), Pallas (1802), Juno (1804), and Vesta (1807)—were considered planets during the first half of the 19th century (with some astronomers continuing to consider…
High-resolution images of the north (at left) and south (at right) hemispheres of Pallas, made possible by the Adaptive-Optics (AO)-fed SPHERE imager on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 2020. Two large impact basins could have been created by Palladian asteroid–forming impacts. The bright spot in the southern hemisphere is reminiscent of the salt deposits on Ceres.
Relative sizes of the four largest asteroids. Pallas is second from right.
An ultraviolet image of Pallas showing its flattened shape, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007