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
Small body data
1045 Michela (A924 WN)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 6.104 km
- Albedo
- 0.328
- Rotation period
- 2.701 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 13.030 H
- Earth MOID
- 1 AU
via NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Key facts
- Discovered by
- G. van Biesbroeck
- Discovery site
- Yerkes Obs.
- Discovery date
- 19 November 1924
- Named after
- Micheline van Biesbroeck , (discoverer's daughter)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 TR · 1953 VB 2 , 1964 XJ · 1976 AL
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Massalia
- Observation arc
- 63.64 yr (23,246 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.7348 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9811 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3580 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.62 yr (1,323 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 259.96 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q132850
- Follows
- Q132843
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +6.104
- Orbital period
- +1323.157482294625
Show 4 more facts
- P720
Article
1045 Michela, provisional designation 1924 TR, is an stony Massalian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers (4 miles) kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 19 November 1924, by Belgian–American astronomer George Van Biesbroeck at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States. The S-type asteroid was named after the discoverer's daughter, Micheline van Biesbroeck.
Orbit and classification