AI overview
23 Thalia is an asteroid located in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is one of the named asteroids in this region and contributes to our understanding of the solar system's composition and structure.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Picture of the Day · NASA
NGC 3660 and Burçin's Galaxy
2026-05-26
The upper galaxy might be more photogenic, but the lower galaxy is more unusual. The galaxy up top is NGC 3660, a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way galaxy in that it has several bright blue spiral arms and a central bar of stars, dust, and gas. Captured by chance in the featured deep and colorful image, surprisingly, is SN 2026cff, a supernova found just to the right of the central bar. Farther in the distance is the bottom galaxy, known informally as Burçin’s galaxy, but formally cataloged as LEDA 1000714. The center of this galaxy appears to be an old elliptical galaxy, but it is strangely surrounded by not one but two rings of stars. What created Burçin's galaxy is a mystery and remains a continuing topic of research, but it likely involves the accretion of one or more smaller galaxies.
via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- J. R. Hind
- Discovery date
- 15 December 1852
- Pronunciation
- / θ ə ˈ l aɪ . ə /
- Named after
- Thalia
- Alternative designations
- 1938 CL; 1974 QT 2
- Minor planet category
Article
23 Thalia (/θəˈlaɪ.ə/) is a large main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by J. R. Hind on 15 December 1852, at the private observatory of W. Bishop, located in Hyde Park, London, England. Bishop named it after Thalia, the Muse of comedy and pastoral poetry in Greek mythology.
It is categorized as an S-type asteroid consisting of mainly of iron- and magnesium-silicates. This the second most common type of asteroid in the main belt. Based on analysis of the light curve, the object has a sidereal rotation period of 0.513202 ± 0.000002 days. An ellipsoidal model of the light curve gives an a/b ratio of 1.28 ± 0.05.