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
Small body data
1836 Komarov (1971 OT)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 22.240 km
- Albedo
- 0.042
- Rotation period
- 8.802 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 12.130 H
- Earth MOID
- 1.220 AU
via NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Key facts
- Discovered by
- N. Chernykh
- Discovery site
- Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
- Discovery date
- 26 July 1971
- Named after
- Vladimir Komarov (Soviet cosmonaut)
- Alternative designations
- 1971 OT · 1952 KA 1 , 1952 MT · 1961 JG, 1962 SG
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Dora
- Observation arc
- 63.89 yr (23,334 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.3187 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2523 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7855 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.65 yr (1,698 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 308.73 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Vladimir Komarov
- Followed by
- Q144528
- Follows
- Q144504
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +22.24
- Orbital period
- +1693.168590866987
- Image
- 001836-asteroid shape model (1836) Komarov.png
Show 4 more facts
Article
1836 Komarov (prov. designation: 1971 OT) is a carbonaceous Dorian asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 22 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 July 1971 by Russian astronomer Nikolai Chernykh at Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij on the Crimean peninsula. It was named after Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov.
Classification and orbit