Pallas and Vesta
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Pallas and Vesta were discovered by the German physician and amateur astronomer Olbers.
Pallas and Vesta were discovered by the German physician and amateur astronomer Olbers.
It is really a special case when an asteroid, which has essentially nothing special gets its own medal. Yet it happened.
The number of asteroids with known orbit was 410810 in July 2014. With such a large number it is no wonder that a new asteroid will only get attention if its path crosses that of Earth, and has the chance to hit it once. It was not always this way, in the mid-1800s even a commemorative medal has been issued to the occasion of the discovery of 100th asteroid.
A lot of asteroids are orbiting in the Solar System. Yet they are missing from most medals, which depicts the solar system's planets. There are fortunately rare exceptions.