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
Small body data
423 Diotima (A896 XA)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 175.859 km
- Albedo
- 0.067
- Rotation period
- 4.775 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 7.380 H
- Earth MOID
- 1.950 AU
via NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Auguste Charlois
- Discovery date
- 7 December 1896
- Pronunciation
- / d aɪ . ə ˈ t aɪ m ə /
- Named after
- Diotima of Mantinea (Διοτίμα Diotīma )
- Alternative designations
- 1896 DB
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Diotimean / d aɪ . ɒ t ə ˈ m iː ə n / , Diotimian / d aɪ . ə ˈ t ɪ m i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 116.96 yr (42719 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.18523 AU (476.504 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.95026 AU (441.353 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.06774 AU (458.927 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.37 yr (1962.6 d )
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Diotima of Mantinea
- Followed by
- Q153133
- Follows
- Q114584
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +175.859
- Orbital period
- +1961.657169323514
- Image
- 423Diotima (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
423 Diotima is one of the larger main-belt asteroids. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous material.
It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on 7 December 1896, in Nice. In the late 1990s, a network of astronomers worldwide gathered lightcurve data that was ultimately used to derive the spin states and shape models of 10 new asteroids, including 423 Diotima. The light curve for this asteroid varies "a lot" depending on the position, with the brightness variations ranging from almost zero to up to 0.2 in magnitude. Dunham (2002) used 15 chords and obtained an estimated size of 171 km × 138 km.