7 Iris (eye'-ris) is one of the largest Main belt asteroids. It has a very bright-colored surface and is probably a mixture nickel-iron metals and magnesium- and iron-silicates.

It was the seventh asteroid discovered, on August 13, 1847 by J. R. Hind from London, UK. It was his first asteroid discovery.

It was named after the rainbow goddess Iris of Greek mythology, sister of the Harpies and messenger of the gods, especially Juno. Her quality of attendant of Juno was particularly appropriate to the circumstances of discovery, as she was spotted following 3 Juno by less than an hour of right ascension.

Iris was observed occulting a star on May 26, 1995 and later on July 25, 1997. Both observations give a diameter of about 200 km.

External links

• "Discovery of Iris", MNRAS 7 (1847) 299