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
- H. Alikoski
- Discovery site
- Turku Obs.
- Discovery date
- 18 March 1939
- Named after
- Oulu (Finnish town)
- Alternative designations
- 1939 FE · 1938 CU, 1957 TA · 1958 XS
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Hilda
- Observation arc
- 78.06 yr (28,510 days)
- Aphelion
- 4.5541 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.3892 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.9717 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 7.92 yr (2,891 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 333.83 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 7 28.2 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Oulu
- Followed by
- 1513 Mátra
- Follows
- 1511 Daléra
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- +79.872
- Orbital period
- +2887.640598072644
- Image
- 1512 Oulu Hubble.jpg
Show 4 more facts
Article
1512 Oulu (provisional designation 1939 FE) is a dark Hildian asteroid, slow rotator and possibly the largest known tumbler orbiting in the outermost region of the asteroid belt. With a diameter of approximately 80 kilometers, it belongs to the fifty largest asteroids in the outer main-belt. The body was discovered on 18 March 1939, by Finnish astronomer Heikki Alikoski at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland and named for the Finnish town Oulu.
Orbit and classification