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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 1 November 1894
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈɪŋəbɔʁk ]
- Named after
- unknown ( Ingeborg )
- Alternative designations
- 1894 BE · 1934 AJ, A894 VB
- Minor planet category
- Mars-crosser
- Observation arc
- 122.86 yr (44,875 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.0285 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.6120 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3203 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.53 yr (1,291 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 292.16 °
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q152371
- Follows
- 390 Alma
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- Mars-crossing asteroid
- Diameter
- +15.751
- Orbital period
- +1291.301822741738
Show 4 more facts
Article
391 Ingeborg (prov. designation: A894 VB or 1894 BE) is an asteroid and second-largest Mars-crosser on an eccentric orbit from the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf on 1 November 1894, at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. When discovered, it was observed for a couple of weeks, and follow-up observations were made in 1901 and 1904.
Among the many thousands of named minor planets, Ingeborg is one of 120 asteroids, for which no official naming citation has been published. All of these low-numbered asteroids have numbers between 164 Eva and 1514 Ricouxa and were discovered between 1876 and the 1930s, predominantly by astronomers Auguste Charlois, Johann Palisa, Max Wolf and Karl Reinmuth.