149 Medusa 149 Medusa Medusa (minor planet designation: 149 Medusa) is a bright-coloured, stony main-belt asteroid that was discovered by French astronomer J. Perrotin on September 21, 1875, and named after the Gorgon Medusa, a snake-haired monster in Greek mythology. When it was discovered, Medusa was by far the smallest asteroid found (although this was not known at that time). Since then, many thousands of smaller asteroids have been found. It was also the closest asteroid to the Sun discovered up to that point, beating the long-held record of 8 Flora. It remained the closest asteroid to the Sun until 433 Eros
Greek mythology in popular culture elements tantalum and niobium are always found together in nature, and have been named after the King Tantalus and his daughter Niobe. The element promethium also draws its name from Greek mythology, as does titanium, which was named after the titans who in mythology were locked away far underground, which reflected the difficulty of extracting titanium from ore. The U.S. Apollo Space Program to take astronauts to the moon, was named after Apollo, based the god's ability as an archer to hit his target and being the god of light and knowledge. Oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau named his research ship, a