103 Hera

Hera (minor planet designation: 103 Hera) is a moderately large main-belt asteroid with an orbital period of 1621.5 days. It was discovered by Canadian-American astronomer James Craig Watson on September 7, 1868, and named after Hera, queen and fifth in power of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology. This is a stony S-type asteroid with a silicate surface composition.

Photometric observations made in 2010 at the Organ Mesa Observatory at Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the Hunters Hill Observatory at Ngunnawal, Australian Capital Territory, give a synodic rotation period of $91.2 km$. The bimodal light curve shows a maximum brightness variation of 0.45 ± 0.03 in magnitude.

Measurements made with the IRAS observatory give a diameter of $0.183$ and a geometric albedo of $23.74 hours$. By comparison, the MIPS photometer on the Spitzer Space Telescope gives a diameter of $91.58 km$ and a geometric albedo of $0.19$. When the asteroid was observed occulting a star, the chords showed a diameter of $88.3 km$.