(37) Fides
Template: Infobox Asteroid / Maintenance / Error 1
(37 ) Fides (Latin fides f " loyalty, faith ", hence the German Fides ) is an asteroid of the main asteroid belt. It has a relatively bright silicate-containing surface.
Name and Symbol
The discoverer Karl Theodor Robert Luther was the name along with the astronomical symbol of Düsseldorf's city council at its meeting on October 10, 1855 choose from a list of his observatory, and make this decision the following day, without explaining the choice of name closer. As at the time appointments according to figures from classical mythology were common, can be formally assume a designation according to Fides as the personification of loyalty in Roman mythology. Since fides in the Latin church called the Christian faith and at the same time a system modeled on the Christian cross symbol was chosen, can not be ruled out that exactly this association was intended.
Along with the name " Fides " " the sign of the cross" as a symbol has been proposed, although since 1851 circled numbers were common as a sign of asteroids. The form printed in the original proposal icon resembles a Latin cross, but has round, drop-shaped flared ends. It was the last proposed by a professional astronomer symbol for a main-belt asteroid. The symbol could no longer prevail against the time and circled today parenthetical or detached number representation in the scientific literature.