hera (minor planet designation: 103 hera) is a moderately large main-belt asteroid with an orbital period of 4.44 years.it was discovered by canadian-american astronomer james craig watson on september 7, 1868, and named after hera, queen and fifth in power of the olympian gods in greek mythology.this is a stony s-type asteroid with a silicate surface composition.photometric observations made in 2010 at the organ mesa observatory at las cruces, new mexico, and the hunters hill observatory at ngunnawal, australian capital territory, give a synodic rotation period of 23.740±0.001 h. the bimodal light curve shows a maximum brightness variation of 0.45 ± 0.03 in magnitude.measurements made with the iras observatory give a diameter of 91.58±4.14 km and a geometric albedo of 0.19±0.02.by comparison, the mips photometer on the spitzer space telescope gives a diameter of 88.30±8.51 km and a geometric albedo of 0.20±0.04.when the asteroid was observed occulting a star, the chords showed a diameter of 89.1±1.1 km.
103 hera | discoverer | james craig watson <tsp> james craig watson | almamater | university of michigan <tsp> james craig watson | stateoforigin | canada <tsp> james craig watson | deathplace | madison wisconsin
it was discovered by canadian-american astronomer james craig watson on september 7, 1868, and named after hera, queen and fifth in power of the olympian gods in greek mythology.