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
- A. Patry
- Discovery site
- Nice Obs.
- Discovery date
- 22 February 1939
- Named after
- Auguste Charlois (astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1939 DC · 1959 WE, 1963 UB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Eunomia
- Observation arc
- 78.10 yr (28,525 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.0649 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2791 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6720 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.37 yr (1,595 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 16.619 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 32.52 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Auguste Charlois
- Followed by
- 1511 Daléra
- Follows
- 1509 Esclangona
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +24.507
- Orbital period
- +1595.50619196638
- Image
- 001510-asteroid shape model (1510) Charlois.png
Show 4 more facts
- P61
- André Patry
Article
1510 Charlois (provisional designation 1939 DC) is a carbonaceous Eunomia asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 24 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 22 February 1939, by French astronomer André Patry at Nice Observatory in southeastern France, and later named after astronomer Auguste Charlois.