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
- C. H. F. Peters
- Discovery date
- 20 February 1876
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ j uː n ə /
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 118.30 yr (43209 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.90877 AU (435.146 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.54727 AU (381.066 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.72802 AU (408.106 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.51 yr (1645.8 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 18.01 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 144.472 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 7.471 / day
- Inclination
- 3.82512°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 161 Athor
- Follows
- Q141165
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +81.24
- Mass
- +560
- Orbital period
- +1645.451373428327
- Image
- 160Una (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
160 Una is a fairly large and dark, primitive main belt asteroid that was discovered by German-American astronomer C. H. F. Peters on February 20, 1876, in Clinton, New York. It is named after a character in Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590). This minor planet is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.73 AU with an eccentricity of 0.07. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 3.83° to the plane of the ecliptic.
In the Tholen classification system it is categorized as a CX-type, while the Bus asteroid taxonomy system lists it as an Xk asteroid. Photometric observations of this asteroid made at the Torino Observatory in Italy during 1990–1991 were used to determine a synodic rotation period of 5.61 ± 0.01 hours. It has an estimated diameter of about 81 km.