| Minor Planet Designation | 23 Thalia | | Asteroid Group | Main Asteroid Belt | | Orbital Period | 4 years, 95 days | | Distance from the Sun | Semi-Major Axis: 392,807,168 km (2.63 AU)
Perihelion: 300,677,935 km (2.01 AU)
Aphelion: 484,936,401 km (3.24 AU) | | Eccentricity | 0.2345 | | Diameter (Mean) | 107.5 kilometres | | Notes | The Solar System's main Asteroid Belt can be divided into three major zones divided by 'Kirkwood gaps' where relatively few asteroids orbit. Thalia's orbit places it, on average, within the central or intermediate of these zones, though its eccentricity is somewhat higher than usual for a body of its kind, and at points in its orbit it drifts through both the inner and outer parts of the Asteroid Belt. |
One of ten asteroids whose discovery is credited to astronomer John Russell Hind. Thalia was first identified in 1852 and is one of several asteroids for which Hind chose the names of Greek muses (Thalia being the muse of comedy and rustic poetry).
The asteroid Thalia orbits through the Solar System's main asteroid belt, at a distance averaging 2.6 AU from the Sun, completing each circuit through the belt in a period of 4.3 years. It is an asteroid of the stony S-type, approximately spherical in shape (though with some irregularities) reaching nearly 108 km across its longest diameter. Thalia rotates on its axis every twelve hours.
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