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
- Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt
- Discovery date
- 9 September 1857
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ m ɛ l ɪ t iː /
- Named after
- Melete
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Meletean / m ɛ l ɪ ˈ t iː ə n /
- Aphelion
- 480.683 million km (3.213 AU )
- Perihelion
- 295.717 million km (1.977 AU)
- Semi major axis
- 388.200 million km (2.595 AU)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1526.839 d (4.18 a )
- Mean anomaly
- 267.781°
- Inclination
- 8.072°
- Longitude of ascending node
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Melete
- Followed by
- 57 Mnemosyne
- Follows
- 55 Pandora
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +121.333
- Orbital period
- +1528.5880093769
- Image
- 56Melete (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
56 Melete is a large and dark main-belt asteroid. It is a rather unusual P-type asteroid, probably composed of organic-rich silicates, carbon and anhydrous silicates, with possible internal water ice. The asteroid orbits the Sun with a period of 4.18 years.
Melete was discovered by Hermann Goldschmidt from his balcony in Paris, on 9 September 1857. Its orbit was computed by E. Schubert, who named it after Melete, the Muse of meditation in Greek mythology. It was originally confused for 41 Daphne before it was confirmed not to be by its second sighting on 27 August 1871. In 1861, the brightness of 56 Melete was shown to vary by German astronomer Friedrich Tietjen.