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
- R. Luther
- Discovery date
- 5 May 1853
- Pronunciation
- / p r oʊ ˈ s ɜːr p ɪ n ə /
- Named after
- Proserpina
- Alternative designations
- 1935 KK; 1954 WD 1
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Proserpinian / ˌ p r ɒ s ər ˈ p ɪ n i ə n /
- Symbol
- (historical)
- Aphelion
- 2.890 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.420 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.655 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.327 yr (1580.27 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 289.591°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Proserpina
- Followed by
- 27 Euterpe
- Follows
- Q108336
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +94.8
- Orbital period
- +1580.266117663556
- Image
- A713.M1189.shape.png
Show 4 more facts
Article
26 Proserpina is a main-belt asteroid discovered by German astronomer R. Luther on 5 May 1853. It is named after the Roman goddess Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres and the Queen of the Roman Underworld. Another main-belt asteroid, 399 Persephone, discovered in 1895, is named after her Greek counterpart. Its historical symbol was a star inside a pomegranate; it is encoded in Unicode as U+1CECD ASTRONOMICAL SYMBOL FOR ASTEROID PROSERPINA ().
This object is orbiting the Sun with a period of 4.33 years. It has a cross-section size of around 90 km and a stony (S-type) composition. Photometric observations of this asteroid have produced discrepant estimates of the rotation period. A period of 12.13 hours was reported in 1979, followed by 10.6 hours in 1981 and 6.67 hours in 2001. Observations made in 2007 at the Oakley Observatory in Terre Haute, Indiana produced a light curve with a period of 13.06 ± 0.03 hours and a brightness variation of 0.21 ± 0.01 in magnitude. This was refined by a 2008 study, giving a period of 13.110 ± 0.001 hours.