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
- 1 April 1970
- Named after
- Angara River , (Siberian river)
- Alternative designations
- 1970 GF · 1962 WG 1 , 1969 AA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Eos
- Observation arc
- 60.58 yr (22,126 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.1828 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8338 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0083 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.22 yr (1,906 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 345.36 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 20.04 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Angara
- Followed by
- Q302333
- Follows
- 1956 Artek
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +17.907
- Orbital period
- +1909.62579612292
- Image
- 001957-asteroid shape model (1957) Angara.png
Show 3 more facts
Article
1957 Angara (prov. designation: 1970 GF) is a stony Eos asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 18 kilometers (11 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 1 April 1970, by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, and named after the Siberian Angara River.
Classification and orbit