Photometric Observation and Modeling Study of the Asteroid (26) Proserpina

We present the new CCD observations on the asteroid (26) Proserpina performed between 2011 December and 2012 February. Based upon the new observations, a synodic rotation period of (13.107 ± 0.002) h is obtained. Using all the light curves available sofar, the rotation vector, rotation period, and the shape model of the asteroid are determined with the convex-hull inversion method. Further more, a bootstrap method is applied to estimating the uncertainties of the rotation parameters. We derive a pair of possible rotation poles for (26) Proserpina, and believe that it has a retrograde rotation. The rotation poles are determined to be λ1 = 90.8° ± 1.4°, β1 = −53.1° ± 3.2°, and λ2 = 259.3° ± 2.2°, β2 = −62.0° ± 2.0°. The sidereal rotation periods corresponding to the two poles are almost the same as (13.109777 ± 3.8 × 10-6) h. And corresponding to this pair of rotation poles, the convex-hull shapes of the asteroid are the mirror images of each other.