9 metis

9 Metis ("MEE tiss") is one of the largest Main belt asteroids. It is composed of silicates and metallic nickel-iron. Metis was discovered by A. Graham on April 25, 1848; his only asteroid discovery. It is also the only asteroid to have been discovered from Ireland. Its name comes from the mythological Metis, a Titaness, daughter of Tethys and Oceanus (and thus an Oceanid), who was the first wife of Zeus and the mother of Athena. Zeus devoured her lest she bear a child more powerful than he. Light curve data on Metis led to an assumption that it could have a satellite. However, subsequent observations failed to confirm this. http://www.bdl.fr/observateur/binast/binary_ast.php http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/asteroidmoonsq.html Metis was later observed with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, which was able to resolve the irregular shape of the asteroid, but no satellites were detected. http://web.media.mit.edu/~win/hstpub.pdf Metis has been observed occulting a star no less than 5 times. Metis is also the name of a satellite of Jupiter.

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Metis

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