Since 1801, it had been discovered that a large number of “rocks” were floating around in the band between Mars and Jupiter. After some discussion, it was decided to call them asteroids or planetoids. From 1924 onwards, the Royal Observatory jumped on the bandwagon and took photographs (glass plates) of the sky. On 15 November 1925, the first discovery was made.

Eugène Delporte found the first Belgian asteroid and named it ‘Belgica’. It was the 1052nd asteroid worldwide, which meant that it was given the official name 1052-Belgica. The observation was made with the triplet telescope.

Its orbital period around the sun is 3.34 years (= 1222 days).

It is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Its size was estimated to be between 9.78 and 10.94 km.