ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

46 Hestia

Okay kiddo, do you know what numbers are? They are like tiny blocks that we can stack up to make bigger numbers. For example, we can stack up four blocks and put six more on top to make 46.

Now, Hestia is a name of a goddess in ancient Greek mythology. People in the modern world sometimes name things after gods and goddesses from the past. So 46 Hestia is actually the name of a small asteroid that was discovered in 1857.

An asteroid is like a rock that floats around in space. There are millions of them in our solar system. Astronomers who study space like to give names to these asteroids so they can keep track of them.

When they named this asteroid, they decided to use the number 46 because it was the 46th asteroid they discovered. And since they named it after a Greek goddess, they added her name to the end of the number. So that's how we got 46 Hestia!