Victoria (Victory) and Asteroid 12 Victoria - Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 54° 58.669 W 001° 36.833
30U E 588713 N 6093202
12 Victoria is a large main-belt asteroid, originally named after Queen Victoria it was changed to be officially named after the Roman Goddess Victoria, otherwise known as Victory, especially on war memorials.
Waymark Code: WMNK9M
Location: North East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/27/2015
Views: 6
The figure of Victory
This winged statue of Victory is on top of a war memorial and was erected and unveiled by Lieutenant Genral Sir Laurence Oliphant on 22nd June 1908.
Victory is standing 70 feet in the air, and is holding a laurel wreath in her raised right hand and a sword in her lowered left hand.
The base of the column has a female figure representing the county Northumbria looking upwards with a palm branch in memory of her fallen sons in her out-stretched right hand and a standard in the other.
In Roman times Victoria was often worshipped by triumphant generals returning from war and hence can quite often be found on United Kingdom war memorials.
The memorial is a Grade II* listed Building, English Heritage ID 1024847.
link
The Asteroid
The asteroid was discovered on September 13th 1850 by J.R. Hind of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London.
link
He chose the name during the reign of Queen Victoria, but it was felt to be inappropriate to have the asteroid named after a living monarch.
However W. C. Bond, of the Harvard College Observatory held that the mythological condition was fulfilled and the name stayed as it was.
It has a diameter of 112.77 km, an orbital speed of 9.5 km/s and an orbital period of 3.57 Julian Years. It is the joint 117th largest known asteroid.