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
- Norman Robert Pogson
- Discovery date
- August 16, 1857
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ h ɛ s t i ə /
- Named after
- Hestia
- Minor planet category
- main belt
- Aphelion
- 2.961 AU (442.886 million km)
- Perihelion
- 2.091 AU (312.736 million km)
- Semi major axis
- 2.526 AU (377.811 million km)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.01 a (1465.958 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 45.401°
- Inclination
- 2.342°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 181.168°
- Argument of perihelion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Hestia
- Followed by
- 47 Aglaja
- Follows
- 45 Eugenia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +131.471
- Mass
- +3.5
- Orbital period
- +1466.28175268426
Show 5 more facts
- P61
- N. R. Pogson
Article
46 Hestia is a large, dark main-belt asteroid. It is also the primary body of the Hestia clump, a group of asteroids with similar orbits.
Hestia was discovered by N. R. Pogson on August 16, 1857, at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford. Pogson awarded the honour of naming it to William Henry Smyth, the previous owner of the telescope used for the discovery. Smyth chose to name it after Hestia, Greek goddess of the hearth. This created a problem in Greek, where 4 Vesta also goes by the name Hestia.