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
- Indiana University , ( Indiana Asteroid Program )
- Discovery site
- Goethe Link Obs.
- Discovery date
- 16 October 1961
- Named after
- John Couch Adams , (mathematician)
- Alternative designations
- 1961 UA · 1932 RM, 1961 TB 2 · 1969 TW 2 , 1971 BY 1 · 1973 SJ 3
- Minor planet category
- main-belt , Eunomia · Maria
- Observation arc
- 55.66 yr (20,331 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.9123 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2058 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5591 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.09 yr (1,495 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 259.97 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- John Couch Adams
- Followed by
- 1997 Leverrier
- Follows
- Q826623
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +12.417
- Orbital period
- +1494.888769104689
- Image
- 1996Adams (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 3 more facts
Article
1996 Adams, provisional designation 1961 UA, is a stony Eunomia asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 16 October 1961, by the Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, United States. It was later named after mathematician John Couch Adams.
Classification and orbit