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
- C. H. F. Peters
- Discovery site
- Clinton, New York
- Discovery date
- 9 September 1878
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ θ aɪ . ə /
- Alternative designations
- A878 RA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt
- Observation arc
- 136.18 yr (49739 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.5415 AU (380.20 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.3597 AU (353.01 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.4506 AU (366.60 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.84 yr (1401.2 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 336.98 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 24.912 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Phthia
- Followed by
- 190 Ismene
- Follows
- 188 Menippe
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +38.49
- Orbital period
- +1401.112731877681
Show 4 more facts
Article
189 Phthia is a bright-coloured, rocky main belt asteroid that was discovered by German-American astronomer Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters on September 9, 1878, in Clinton, New York, and named after Phthia, a region of ancient Greece.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, during 2008 gave a light curve with a period of 22.346 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.26 ± 0.02 in magnitude.