Hedwig is asteroid #476 and also known as 1901 QB (according to the IAU, which has the absolute authority on naming planets, while Wikipedia gives the asteroid designation as 1901 GQ). Hedwig is of the type P (Tholen) or X (SMASS II). Hedwig’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.65 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.07, a period of revolution of 1 576 days, and an inclination of 10.9 degrees. Hedwig was discovered by the Italian astronomer Luigi Carnera at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory, where he was an assistant of the German astronomer Max Wolf. The orbit of this asteroid was calculated by the Swedish-Danish astronomer Svante Elis Strömgren from Sweden’s Skåne Province (Skåne län). The asteroid #1422 or Strömgrenia and a crater on the Moon are named after him.

While Hedwig is named after his wife Hedvig Lidforss Strömgren. She lived from 1877 until 1967 and was a dentist, a dentistry historian, an editor, and an activist for peace and for women’s rights. Lidforss was her maiden name. Before she studied dentistry, she already had begun to study mathematics and zoology. Although women could study at Swedish universities already since 1870, this in the time of Hedvig Lidforss Strömgren still wasn’t something normal, but rather made her suspicious. She in 1902 married Svante Elis Strömgren and moved to Kiel in Germany, where her husband lived and worked since already 1901. Svante Elis Strömgren in 1907 moved to the Danish capital Copenhagen in order to live and work in the Østervold Observatory. His wife again followed him a year later. In 1908 and 1909, she gave birth to their sons Bengt Strömgren, who became his father’s successor in the observatory, and Erik Strömgren, who became a psychiatrist. Hedvig Lidforss Strömgren worked in Kiel and then in Copenhagen as a dentist. During her time, female dentists usually had only female patients, but hers mainly were university members and sailors from the German navy. In Copenhagen had her practice been in the building of the Østervold Observatory until either 1940, when her husband retired, or 1947, when her husband passed away. Hedvig Lidforss Strömgren after that had two other dentistry offices and additional to them worked from 1917 until 1952 in an orphanage. For her publications on the history of dentistry did she in 1958 receive the first honorary doctorate, which ever got awarded by Copenhagen’s Dentistry University. She got other awards, too, so was famous for her own merits instead of those of her husband.

Hedda is an asteroid named after a woman, whose real name was Hedwig. So asteroid #476 could be named Hedwig, although this rather is the German variant of the Swedish name Hedvig. Her parents and her four siblings also are known for their own merits, so naming the asteroid after a family-name really wouldn’t have been a sensible option. So Hedwig presides over dentistry, history of dentistry, and women becoming famous for their own merits.