Heinrich Olbers had discovered Pallas in 1802,…

Heinrich Olbers had discovered Pallas in 1802, the year after the discovery of Ceres.

He had proposed that the two objects were the remnants of a destroyed planet.

He sent a letter with his proposal to the English astronomer William Herschel, suggesting that a search near the locations where the orbits of Ceres and Pallas intersected might reveal more fragments.

These orbital intersections are located in the constellations of Cetus and Virgo.

Olbers had commenced his search in 1802, and on 29 March 1807 he discovers Vesta in the constellation Virgo—a coincidence, because Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta are not fragments of a larger body.

Because the asteroid Juno had been discovered in 1804, this makes Vesta the fourth object to be identified in the region that is now known as the asteroid belt.

The discovery i announced in a letter addressed to German astronomer Johann H. Schröter dated March 31.

Because Olbers already has credit for discovering a planet (Pallas; at this time, the asteroids are considered to be planets), he gives the honor of naming his new discovery to German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, whose orbital calculations had enabled astronomers to confirm the existence of Ceres, the first asteroid, and who had computed the orbit of the new planet in the remarkably short time of ten hours.

Gauss decides on the Roman virgin goddess of home and hearth, Vesta.