Irene was discovered by English astronomerJohn R. Hind on the very early morning of 20 May 1851 fromGeorge Bishop's Observatory inLondon, England. At that time, he was observing near the star Lalande 29490, around the 16th hour ofright ascension and 10–15°S ofdeclination in the constellation ofScorpius.[9][10] For several years prior, he had examined this region of the sky as a nearby star had been erroneously omitted from Wölfer'sstar charts.[11] Near Lalande 29490,Xi Scorpii, and 50 Librae,[b] he noticed a pale blue object of about the ninthmagnitude that had not been recorded before.[9][10] Since such an object was unlikely to have gone unnoticed in prior sweeps of the area, he quickly suspected its non-stellar nature. This was confirmed by follow-up observations throughout that morning, and Hind announced his discovery of a new planet[c] throughThe London Times on 21 May 1851.[10][13] Further announcements of the discovery were published by journals such asAstronomische Nachrichten on 2 June 1851 andThe Astronomical Journal on 5 June 1851.[14][13] Irene was the fourth asteroid discovered by Hind[10] and the fourteenth discovered in history.[15] Hind would go on to discover a further six asteroids.[16]
"You will readily discover that this name [...] has some relation to this event (theGreat Industrial Exhibition) which is now filling our metropolis [London] with the talent of all civilised nations, with those of Peace, the productions of Art and Science, in which all mankind must feel an interest."
TheGreat Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations inthe Crystal Palace ofHyde Park,London, ran from 1 May until 18 October 1851.
Hind suggested that the symbol for the asteroid should be "A dove carrying an olive-branch, with a star on its head",[18] but it was hardly drawn before the use of graphical symbols to represent asteroids was dropped entirely.[19] It was included inUnicode 17.0 as U+1CEC7 ().[20][21]
^abPilcher, Frederick (October 2009). "New Lightcurves of 8 Flora, 13 Egeria, 14 Irene, 25 Phocaea 40 Harmonia, 74 Galatea, and 122 Gerda".Bulletin of the Minor Planets Section of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers.36 (4):133–136.Bibcode:2009MPBu...36..133P.
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