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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 29 January 1933
- Named after
- Hurbanovo Observatory ( 551 ), (formerly O'Gyalla Observatory)
- Alternative designations
- 1933 BT · 1928 DJ 1 , 1928 FO · 1929 MA, 1935 QE 1 · 1949 YN, 1956 JF
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Themis
- Observation arc
- 89.36 yr (32,640 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5000 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7064 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1032 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.47 yr (1,997 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 94.460 °
- Mean motion
Article
1259 Ógyalla, provisional designation 1933 BT, is a Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 32 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 January 1933, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named for the Hurbanovo Observatory (551).
Orbit and classification