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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Observatory
- Discovery date
- 3 September 1902
- Pronunciation
- / dʒ ɪ z ˈ m ɒ n d ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1902 JR
- Observation arc
Article
492 Gismonda is a main belt asteroid discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf in 1902. Gismonda is named after the daughter of Tancred, prince of Salerno, from Giovanni Boccaccio's work, The Decameron. It is orbiting 3.11 AU (466 Gm) from the Sun with a period of 5.49 yr and an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.18. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 1.6° to the plane of the ecliptic.
This asteroid is a member of the Themis collisional family, which is one of the largest such groups in the belt. It has an estimated diameter of 50.3±1.1 km. The spectrum suggests the surface is covered with a fine grained silicate mantle. Photometric observations of Gismonda made in 1902 produce a light curve displaying a rotation period of 6.488±0.005 h with a brightness variation of 0.16±0.02 in magnitude