Working at the Brera Observatory in Milan, astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered the sixty-ninth asteroid found in this solar system. He named it "Hesperia" after the classical Greek name for the Italian Peninsula. An M-type minor planet in the main asteroid belt, Hesperia measures only 138.13 kilometers in diameter and has a 5.655 hour day and an 1,879 day year. (By John Osborne)