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 date
- 30 September 1878
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ k ɒ l ɡ ə /
- Named after
- Kólga
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
Article
191 Kolga is a large, dark main-belt asteroid that was discovered by German-American astronomer C. H. F. Peters on September 30, 1878, in Clinton, New York. It is named after Kólga, the daughter of Ægir in Norse mythology.
In 2009, Photometric observations of this asteroid were made at the Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The resulting light curve shows a synodic rotation period of 17.625 ± 0.004 hours with a brightness variation of 0.30 ± 0.03 in magnitude. Previous independent studies produced inconsistent results that differ from this finding.