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
1255 Schilowa (1932 NC)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 33.669 km
- Albedo
- 0.130
- Rotation period
- 29.536 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 10.350 H
Article
1255 Schilowa, provisional designation 1932 NC, is a background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 34 kilometers (21 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 8 July 1932, by Soviet astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid has a longer-than average rotation period of 29.5 hours. It was named after Mariya Zhilova (Schilowa), who was Russia's first professional female astronomer.
Orbit and classification