 He promoted the establishment of the University of Hamburg and founded the Bergedorf–Hamburg Observatory where this minor planet was discovered.The was also mentioned in "The Names of the Minor Planets" by Paul Herget in 1955 ().In both the Tholen- and SMASS-like taxonomy of the Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey (S3OS2) as well as in the SDSS-based taxonomy, "Mellena" is a common, carbonaceous C-type asteroid.