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. Shajn
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 5 September 1935
- Named after
- Couple of astronomers, ( Pelageya and Grigory )
- Alternative designations
- 1935 RF · 1934 CK 1 , 1938 MC · 1941 FD, 1948 LC · 1951 EX 2 , 1952 SX · 1952 UW, 1955 QT · 1955 RP, A921 GB · A924 EQ
Article
1648 Shajna, provisional designation 1935 RF, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 September 1935, by Russian astronomer Pelageya Shajn at Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. Two weeks later, it was independently discovered by Cyril Jackson at Johannesburg Observatory, South Africa. It was later named after the discoverer and her husband, Russian astronomers Grigory Shajn.
Orbit and classification