Hebe is asteroid #6 and of the type S. Hebe was discovered by the German amateur astronomer Karl Ludwig Hencke. He had only discovered Astraea and Hebe. An asteroid (#2005) is named after him too. Professional astronomers had already given up to search for more celestial objects because Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta were believed to be real planets and four planets seemed to be more than enough to fill the gap between Mars and Jupiter. Only Hencke didn’t give up. After he was successful, the planets in the gap were demoted to asteroids and the hunt for asteroids continued. Hebe’s orbit is characterized by a revolution period of 1 380 days, a semi-major axis of 2.426 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.201, and an inclination of 14.765 degrees. Hebe was the first asteroid thought to have a satellite, but this didn’t prove true in the case of this asteroid. Hebe is thought to be the source of the H-chondrites, which means forty percent of all the meteoroids, that strike Earth!

Hebe is named after Hēbē (Ἥβη), the Greek goddess of youth. Hēbē (Ἥβη) is also translated as youth. Hēbē (Ἥβη) is a daughter of Hera and Zeus. Hēbē (Ἥβη) has the power to restore youth, but her main profession used to be to serve ambrosía (ἀμβροσία) to the gods. Nectar was originally nothing else than a synonym for ambrosía (ἀμβροσία). Both used to be described as a sweet liquid and giving immortality.

The presumed satellite of Hebe should have gotten the name Jebe, thus turning the whole system into a bad pun. A divine astrological force like Hebe doesn’t agree with ideas like this. So the suspected satellite couldn’t exist. Hebe is a serious astrological force!

There are other deities of youth too. So for figuring out the meaning of Hebe a comparison of them is a necessity. The Roman counterpart Iuventas isn’t represented in the sky, at least not yet. So ignoring it is the only option for now. But Iduna represents the Norse goddes of youth. So she has to be considered. Iduna is the wish or wishful thinking of staying young. Maybe Hebe can represent something in this direction too. But Hebe is also a part of medical terms, which are mainly derived from Latin and Ancient Greek. Then Hebe denotes premature medical conditions. So Hebe will together with other astrological factors show that they are indicating something, which happens prematurely.