44 Nysa (nye'-sa) is a quite large and very bright main belt asteroid. It is also the brightest member of the Nysa asteroid family . It is classified as a rare class E asteroid.
It was discovered by H. Goldschmidt on May 27, 1857 and named after the mythical land of Nysa in Greek mythology.
The shape model constructed form the lightcurve of Nysa is conical, indicating that the asteroid may actually be a contact binary [1].
Nysa has so far been reported occulting a star twice.