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
- H. Goldschmidt
- Discovery date
- March 31, 1856
- Pronunciation
- / h ɑːr ˈ m oʊ n i ə /
- Named after
- Harmonia
- Alternative designations
- 1950 XU
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Aphelion
- 355.021 million km (2.373 AU )
- Perihelion
- 323.537 million km (2.163 AU)
- Semi major axis
- 339.279 million km (2.268 AU)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1,247.514 d (3.42 a )
- Mean anomaly
- 249.120°
- Inclination
- 4.256°
- Longitude of ascending node
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Harmonia
- Followed by
- 41 Daphne
- Follows
- 39 Laetitia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +111.251
- Mass
- +1.3
- Orbital period
- +1247.440820646665
- Image
- 40Harmonia (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
40 Harmonia is a large main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by German-French astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt on March 31, 1856, and named after Harmonia, the Greek goddess of harmony. The name was chosen to mark the end of the Crimean War.
The asteroid is orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.42 years and a relatively low eccentricity of 0.046. It has a cross-sectional size of 107.6 km. The spectrum of 40 Harmonia matches an S-type (silicate) in the Tholen classification system, and is similar to primitive achondrite meteorites. Photometric observations at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico during 2008–09 were used to generate a light curve that showed four unequal minima and maxima per cycle. The curve shows a period of 8.909 ± 0.001 hours with a brightness variation of 0.28 ± 0.02 in magnitude. This result is compatible with previous studies.