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
- S. Arend
- Discovery site
- Uccle Obs.
- Discovery date
- 9 August 1953
- Named after
- Georges Remi , ( Hergé ) cartoonist
- Alternative designations
- 1953 PA · 1933 UE 1 , 1939 HG
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 83.41 yr (30,464 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5883 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9139 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2511 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.38 yr (1,234 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 34.960 °
- Inclination
- 3.1989°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Hergé
- Followed by
- 1653 Yakhontovia
- Follows
- Q141928
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +8.689
- Orbital period
- +1234.742291952871
- Image
- 001652-asteroid shape model (1652) Hergé.png
Show 3 more facts
Article
1652 Hergé, provisional designation 1953 PA, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 9 August 1953, by Belgian astronomer Sylvain Arend at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle, Belgium. It was later named after Belgian cartoonist Hergé.
Orbit and classification