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
- L. Chernykh
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 6 February 1968
- Named after
- Yuri Gagarin ( cosmonaut )
- Alternative designations
- 1968 CB · 1940 GA, 1942 VZ · 1948 ET, 1960 FH · 1969 OO
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle )
- Observation arc
- 76.21 yr (27,835 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.7924 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2610 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5267 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.02 yr (1,467 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 90.345 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Yuri Gagarin
- Followed by
- Q143543
- Follows
- 1771 Makover
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +9.634
- Orbital period
- +1467.752133479652
- Image
- 001772-asteroid shape model (1772) Gagarin.png
Show 3 more facts
Article
1772 Gagarin (prov. designation: 1968 CB) is a stony background asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 6 February 1968, by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean Peninsula. The asteroid was named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
Orbit and classification