125 Liberatrix is a main-belt asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

. It has a relatively reflective surface and an M-type spectrum

M-type asteroid

M-type asteroids are asteroids of partially known composition; they are moderately bright . Some, but not all, are made of nickel-iron, either pure or mixed with small amounts of stone. These are thought to be pieces of the metallic core of differentiated asteroids that were fragmented by impacts,...

. Liberatrix is a member of an asteroid family

Asteroid family

An asteroid family is a population of asteroids that share similar proper orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. The members of the families are thought to be fragments of past asteroid collisions...

 bearing its own name.

Discovery and name

It was discovered by Prosper Henry

Paul Henry and Prosper Henry

Paul-Pierre Henry and his brother Mathieu-Prosper Henry were French opticians and astronomers....

 on September 11, 1872 from Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. Some sources give Paul Henry sole credit for its discovery. The asteroid's name is a feminine version of the word "liberator". Henry may have chosen the name to mark the liberation of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 from Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

 during the Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

 in 1870. More specifically, it may honor Adolphe Thiers

Adolphe Thiers

Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...

, the first President of the French Republic

President of the French Republic

The President of the French Republic colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State....

, who arranged a loan that enabled the Prussian troops to be removed from France.

Observations

In the late 1990s, a network of astronomers worldwide gathered lightcurve data to derive the spin states and shape models of 10 asteroids, including Liberatrix. Liberatrix's lightcurve has a large amplitude

Amplitude

Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation...

, indicating an elongated or irregular shape.

To date, there have been at least two observed occultation

Occultation

An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. The word is used in astronomy . It can also refer to any situation wherein an object in the foreground blocks from view an object in the background...

s by Liberatrix.