Pele is asteroid #2202 and also known as 1972 RA. Pele belongs to the group Amor and is a Mars-orbit-crosser. Pele was discovered by the American astronomer Arnold Richard Klemola at the Lick Observatory. Pele’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.29 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.51, a period of revolution of 1 267 days, and an inclination of 8.7 degrees.

Pele is named after the goddess Pele from Hawaiian mythology. She is the goddess of fire and volcanoes. Pele’s elder sister Nāmaka is the goddess of the sea. Both are daughters of Haumea. Nāmaka was born from Haumea’s thighs and is represented in the sky by a moon (Namaka or Haumea II, the smaller and inner of the two asteroid-moons) of the cubewano Haumea. Pele was born from Haumea’s head. They originally lived on Tahiti. Nāmaka and Pele often had quarrels. Nāmaka convinced her family that Pele would burn everybody. So Pele had to leave. She left by boat and created volcanoes on all islands along her way. Another variant of the tale says that Pele had to leave because she had stolen the husband from Nāmaka and married him herself. Pele was accompanied by friends and relatives, when she left Tahiti. Nāmaka did follow Pele, too, because Nāmaka wanted to end Pele. They had an epic final battle on the slopes of Haleakalā on Hawaii’s Maui. The Haleakalā is an active volcano and occupies three quarters of the territory of Maui. Pele lost and some variants of the tale say that she died. But this doesn’t hinder an immortal goddess in anything. The fire pit Halemaʻumaʻu in the caldera of the volcano Kīlauea on Hawaii’s Big Island became Pele’s home. Nāmaka left the island. But Pele still has deities of water, rain, and snow as her enemies at her new home. Pele appears in many tales of Hawaiian mythology.

Pele is the goddess of volcanoes, but the task of representing volcanoes is fulfilled by the asteroid Vulcano, that is named after the island Vulcano, which belongs to the Aeolian Islands and is the origin of the term volcano. Pele has other things named after her. Volcanic glass is, depending on its shape, called “hair of Pele”, “tears of Pele”, or “seaweed of Pele”. Volcanic glass is a natural type of mineral wool. Pele also is known as the goddess, who shapes the islands. So Pele doesn’t represent volcanoes themselves, but everything produced by volcanoes. Pele is a rival to representatives of fire and an enemy to representatives of water, the sea, rain, or snow. Aspects from astrological forces representing characters from Hawaiian mythology to Pele should always be considered. The type of a relationship could be revealed this way.