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
- 22 December 1886
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈliːbʊsaː ]
- Named after
- Libuše
- Alternative designations
- A886 YA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 123.02 yr (44934 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1799 AU (475.71 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.41375 AU (361.092 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.79681 AU (418.397 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.68 yr (1708.4 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 17.81 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 254.88 °
Article
264 Libussa is a Main belt asteroid that was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on 22 December 1886, in Clinton, New York and was named after Libussa, the legendary founder of Prague. It is classified as an S-type asteroid.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 2008 gave an asymmetrical, bimodal light curve with a period of 9.2276 ± 0.0002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.33 ± 0.03 in magnitude. Observation from the W. M. Keck Observatory show an angular size of 57 mas, which is close to the resolution limit of the instrument. The estimated maximum size of the asteroid is about 66 ± 7 km. It has an asymmetrical shape with a size ratio of more than 1.22 between the major and minor axes.