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
- R. Carrasco
- Discovery site
- Madrid Obs.
- Discovery date
- 16 December 1935
- Named after
- Rafael Carrasco, (discoverer's son)
- Alternative designations
- 1935 YA · 1939 XA, 1941 JB · 1949 JC, 1951 VF · 1955 TS, 1957 GD · 1959 UD, A906 RB · A916 BA
Article
1644 Rafita, provisional designation 1935 YA, is a stony asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 15 kilometers in diameter. It is the namesake of the Rafita family, a family of stony asteroids in the intermediate main-belt. However, Rafita is a suspected interloper in its own family. It was discovered on 16 December 1935, by Spanish astronomer Rafael Carrasco Garrorena at the Royal Observatorio Astronómico de Madrid in Spain, and named in memory of the discoverer's son.
Orbit and classification