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
- P. M. Henry
- Discovery site
- Paris
- Discovery date
- 7 August 1875
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ ɡ æ l i ə /
- Named after
- Gaul , (Latin name for France )
- Alternative designations
- A875 PA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Gallia
- Observation arc
- 138.37 yr (50,540 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2885 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2531 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7708 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.61 yr (1,685 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 278.58 °
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- France
- Followed by
- 149 Medusa
- Follows
- Q213466
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +97.75
- Orbital period
- +1683.981079599828
Show 4 more facts
- P65
Article
148 Gallia is an asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 90 kilometers (56 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 7 August 1875, by the French brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry at the Paris, but the credit for this discovery was given to Prosper. It was named after the Latin name for the country of France, Gaul. Based upon its spectrum, it is an unusual G-type asteroid (GU) and a stony S-type asteroid in the Tholen and SMASS classification, respectively.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the European Southern Observatory in 1977–78 gave a light curve with a period of 0.86098 ± 0.00030 days (20.6635 ± 0.0072 h) and a brightness variation of 0.32 in magnitude. A 2007 study at the Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado, United States, yielded a period of 20.666 ± 0.002 hours with a magnitude variation of 0.21.