15 Eunomia is a very large asteroid in the inner main asteroid belt. It is the largest of the stony asteroids, and somewhere between the 8th to the 12th largest Main Belt asteroid overall. It is also the largest member of the Eunomia family of asteroids.
Eunomia was discovered by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis on July 29, 1851, and named after one of the Horae, a personification of order and law in Greek mythology. As the largest S-type asteroid, Eunomia has attracted a moderate amount of scientific attention. It contains slightly over one percent of the mass of the entire main belt. Eunomia appears to be an elongated but fairly regularly shaped body, with what appears to be four sides of differing curvature.
Its surface is composed of silicates and some nickel-iron and is quite bright. Its composition indicates that the parent body was likely subject to magmatic processes, and became at least partially differentiated under the influence of internal heating in the early period of the Solar System. The largest remaining fragment should have about 70% of the mass of the parent body.
