Short answers, pulled from the story.
Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis discovered 10 Hygiea on the evening of the 12th of April 1849. He observed the object using the Reichenbach equatorial telescope at the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples.
Ernesto Capocci Belmonte proposed naming 10 Hygiea Igea Borbonica to honor King Ferdinand II of the Bourbons who funded their work. The name eventually became simply Hygiea by the 1860s after English astronomer John Herschel suggested Parthenope instead.
The International Astronomical Union has not yet granted official dwarf planet status to 10 Hygiea despite growing evidence. Telescope images from 2017 and 2018 resolved its nearly spherical shape suggesting it may have reached hydrostatic equilibrium.
A massive collision about 2 to 3 billion years ago shattered the original parent body of what is now called the Hygiea family. Simulations suggest the impactor measured roughly 100 kilometers in diameter and ejected at least 1.7% of 10 Hygiea's total mass during the event.
10 Hygiea orbits the Sun at an average distance of 3.14 astronomical units within the outer main belt region between Mars and Jupiter. Its elliptical path carries it from 2.98 AU at perihelion out to 3.30 AU at aphelion every 5.57 Earth years.