An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A large → main belt  → asteroid that belongs to a sub-type of hydrated → M-type asteroids. It is an elongated body with its longest side around 130 km. The → Rosetta space probe flew by Lutetia and gathered data on it in 2008. Lutetia was discovered on November 15, 1852, by Hermann Goldschmidt (1802-1866) from the balcony of his apartment in Paris.

Named → Lutetia from L. Lutetia Parisiorum, literally "Parisian swamps," the Gallo-Roman city that was the ancestor of present-day Paris.