18 Melpomene

History

Discovery

Melpomene was discovered by English astronomer John Russell Hind on the evening of 24 June 1852. That night, he was observing from George Bishop's Observatory in London, England. Looking at a section of the sky in the 18th hour of right ascension, he spotted a new starlike object with a magnitude of 9. He immediately concluded that it was a "new planet" between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid's discovery—Hind's fifth—was announced in the astronomical journal Astronomische Nachrichten on 30 June 1852.

Name and symbol

George Bishop, the observatory's owner, invited astronomer George Biddell Airy to name the asteroid. Airy chose Melpomene; in Greek mythology, Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy. In a letter to fellow astronomer David Gill, he explained:

I look upon her as my planet for the following reason which you will not find in books. On 1839 June 24 I lost my noble boy Arthur. On 1852 June 24 (just 13 years later) I lost my dear daughter Elizabeth. And, while feeling that day of sorrow, I learnt that on that day a planet was discovered which I was requested to name. So I fixed on the name of the Muse of sadness.

— George B. Airy, In a letter to David Gill

Melpomene was not assigned a symbol upon discovery. One was later published in Hind's 1852 book An Astronomical Vocabulary, appearing as a dagger over a star (U+1CECB 𜻋).