An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A large, bright → main belt asteroid. With a diameter of 136 km, it is the innermost of large → asteroids and the largest member of the → Flora family. It revolves around the Sun with an → orbital period of 3.27 years between a → perihelion of 1.858 → astronomical units and an → aphelion of 2.546 AU. Flora was discovered by J. R. Hind on October 18, 1847.

The name Flora was proposed by John Herschel, from Flora, the Latin goddess of flowers and gardens, wife of Zephyrus (the personification of the West wind), and mother of Spring.

An → asteroid family that includes → Gaspra. The group has about 819 members and orbits between 2.17 and 2.33 → astronomical units from the Sun.

→ Flora; → family.