Discovery date 31 May 1929 Alternative names 1963 MF Aphelion 3.0504 AU (456.33 Gm) Inclination 24.9141° Discoverer Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth | MPC designation 1929 KA Observation arc 86.81 yr (31709 days) Discovered 31 May 1929 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Discovered by Reinmuth, K. at Heidelberg Discovery site Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl Similar 399 Persephone, Sun, 1111 Reinmuthia, Asteroid belt, 499 Venusia | ||
1108 Demeter is an asteroid from the asteroid belt. It was discovered by Karl Reinmuth in Heidelberg, Germany on May 31, 1929. Its provisional designation was 1929 KA. It was named after the Greek goddess of fruitful soil and agriculture.
Naming conflict with 1 Ceres in Greek
The goddess Demeter is the Greek equivalent of Roman Ceres. When 1 Ceres was named, the Greeks called it Demeter, effectively translating the name into Greek, rather as English uses Anglo-Latin Ceres rather than the original Italian Cerere. However, this created a problem when 1108 Demeter was named. The Greeks resolved this by using the classical form of the name, Δημήτηρ Dēmêtēr, for the new body, distinguishing it from the Modern Greek form Δήμητρα Dêmētra that had been used for 1 Ceres. However, Greek-influenced Slavic languages such as Russian had adopted Latin/Italian Cerera for 1 Ceres, and were thus free to use the modern Greek form Demetra for 1108 Demeter.